Nora (Marie Sando Jondal) couldn’t have carried out a greater job of trashing her profession if she’d deliberate it. A Danish journalist working in London as a correspondent, she was alleged to be engaged on a profile of a “controversial” millionaire businessman. Which, in a approach, she was; she was additionally sleeping with him, which could not have been fairly so disastrous if he wasn’t then promptly arrested for fraud.
Now she’s again dwelling and listening to media stories about how she’s “weakened religion” within the media and destroyed her personal credibility. With nowhere else to go, she strikes again to North Zealand to reside together with her father (Bue Wandahl), settling in for an extended stretch of lonely walks on the windswept seashore and awkward one-sided conversations.
Primarily based on the primary of a sequence of best-selling novels by Danish author Lone Theils, and delivered to display by writer-producers Arne Berggren and Kristine (one other of their co-creations, Recoil, can be at SBS On Demand) Berg Deadly Crossing establishes Nora’s plight in a number of deft strokes. We all know there’s extra to come back than merely a portrait of somebody who threw all of it away, due to an ominous opening that options sinister music, glimpses of a photographic darkish room via a half open door and a voice over telling us that “the choices that matter most… a very powerful decisions… they demand remorse”.
However there’s additionally the thriller of Nora herself, which is an enormous a part of what makes this sequence so intriguing proper from the beginning. As we observe Nora from scene to scene, she retains all the pieces locked away, her face clean. There’s no rationalization for why she slept with the businessman she was meant to be reporting on; when family and friends attempt to attain out to her, she offers them a shoulder so chilly it’d as effectively be frozen. She’s a pushed investigator with nothing to drive her.
Then we get a fast glimpse of a police briefing – which additionally serves as our introduction to native policeman Andreas (Jesper Hagelskær Paasch), an outdated buddy of Nora’s who’ll be necessary later – that lets us know one thing suspicious is occurring on the native seashore. At first it simply appears to be a neighborhood creep following women. Nothing value getting frightened about… till one of many women goes lacking.
The identical evening, Nora finds an envelope filled with photographs stuffed in her mailbox. They’re of two women who vanished on a ship to England again within the ‘80s. Somebody who is aware of Nora is again dwelling desires her to have these photographs – somebody who is aware of her instincts as a journalist gained’t let her depart the thriller alone.
Nora Sand (Marie Sando Jondal). Credit score: Shuuto AS
Luckily, her Uncle Olav (Mogens Holm) nonetheless runs the native paper. When she was 15, he gave her a summer season job; now all she desires is a desk she will be able to run her investigation from. The desk is likely to be in a again room, and the chair is likely to be busted, however getting the inexperienced gentle to analyze a 40-year-old thriller is the primary time she’s come alive.
Over the sequence’ eight episodes there’s greater than the standard quantity of twists and turns. The thriller of the 2 women quickly expands in methods laborious to foretell, with a rising listing of suspects and a string of probably associated crimes. The previous is proven to be a useless weight on many characters – and there’s nonetheless the newest disappearance to analyze, which stirs up extra unhealthy recollections.
That’s an issue for Andreas. He’s comfortable to assist Nora – and the pair have nice chemistry, due to sturdy performances from each actors – but it surely was his police officer father who investigated the preliminary disappearances and wrote them off as the 2 women merely operating away. Did his father merely mess up, or was there a cover-up?
Andreas Jansson (Jesper Hagelskær Paasch). Credit score: Shuuto AS
Moody and atmospheric, Deadly Crossing makes good use of sturdy visuals (there’s some good use of handheld cameras so as to add vitality to the storytelling) and a strong soundtrack to assist drive a story that’s as a lot about coping with yesterday as it’s fixing the mysteries of as we speak. Everybody’s decisions right here have weight; everybody right here continues to be coping with their previous.
None extra so than Nora, whose personal traumas drive her onwards to uncover the reality. She’s removed from flawless and typically stumbles in her quest. Her focus is commonly turned inward, leaving others shut out or worse; she makes errors, and typically she misses particulars she ought to have observed.
And that’s a major problem when it turns into more and more apparent that the killer she’s on the lookout for can be searching her.
Deadly Crossing is streaming at SBS On Demand.
