Sidetracked (2001)
It is autumn and the people in the otherwise peaceful small town Ystad settle down. But for Kurt Wallander broken idyll of a young woman burned to death in a cornfield. Soon after hitting a serial killer with a series of increasingly brutal murder. What is the relationship between a retired attorney general, a successful art dealer and an ordinary petty thief? Why scalp killer his victims?
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Too much of everything
Great Film overall
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
As this story opens Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander attends a scene where a farmer is complaining about somebody in his crop. As Kurt enters the crop he sees a teenaged girl and calls out to her; she then immolates herself in front of his. He manages to get away before the crop catches fire but is haunted by what he saw. It isn't long before more deaths occur; these are even more bizarre though as the killer uses an axe to kill his victims then scalps them! These victims aren't obviously connected but given the way they died it is clear to the police that the same killer is involved.The identity of the killer is not hidden from the viewer so the only real question to be asked is 'why is he doing it?' When we do learn the connection between the victims it is pretty grim so it is hard to have much sympathy for them. Knowing the killers identity doesn't make the story any less interesting in fact is sometimes makes it more interesting as we see the police talking to him without suspecting him and later we see him approaching Kurt's daughter Linda which increased the sense of danger. There are quite a few disturbing moments that mean this isn't suitable for younger viewers but given the themes and the way they are shown I doubt they would be too interested in watching it.Originally made as a single film this story was broken into two separate episodes when it aired on BBC4 which was a shame as by the time I came to watch the concluding episode I'd forgotten too many details of the opening part; if it is shown this way in future I'd recommend recording it and watching the two parts together so you can enjoy it as the creators intended.