Varg Veum - Fallen Angels

In Bergen, the private detective Varg Veum takes on a murder investigation that circles an old friend. As the work goes on, the case turns out to connect to his own youth, to people who grew up in the same circle, and to a file that was closed long ago. The film is not interested in solving the crime. It is interested in the overlap between the case and the detective's past: Veum already knows the people he is investigating, so every lead is also a personal wound. The form has the familiar tone of Scandinavian crime: rainy city, cold colours, sparse music and a tired hero. Bergen here is not scenery but part of the file. The source is Gunnar Staalesen's Varg Veum novels. The series was shot in a run for video and television release in Norway, and this is one of the entries that reached cinemas. Morten Tyldum directs. His first feature was Buddy; this work is genre and dark, and Headhunters and The Imitation Game came after it. Trond Espen Seim plays Veum, with Fridtjov Såheim and Pia Tjelta in support. Who it is for: viewers who like Nordic crime and follow the series. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a standalone story. The film assumes you know a good deal about the character's past and feels incomplete on its own.