Tueur d'état

This is the story about the killing of one of the greatest politicians in Swedish history, Olof Palme. Like the murder of JFK, many questions has popped up if involvment stretches as high as up to the government. Mikael Persbrandt shows, as usual, a superb way of playing his role. This time he plays a police on the track of the Palme-killer. Kjell Sundvall directs with perfect timing and speed, and gives the film a perfect touch. These two components bring this film up to my top10 Swedish films-list. Simply excellent!

Much has been written and speculated about this sad part of Swedish history. This movie presents an interesting view on how things may have unfolded. Almost 20 years and numerous investigations and commissions later still the whole truth has not come to see the light of day.

If you enjoy historical thrillers then this is a movie for you.

Who was behind the murder of progressive Swedish leader Olof Palme in 1986? More than twenty years after the deed, the crime remains unsolved. This movie avoids naming real names behind the murder, but it suggests an international right wing conspiracy. The movie is shot as a thriller and the main characters are a Swedish police officer who suspects something big and ominous is going to happen in his country and tries unsuccessfully to prevent it, a mysterious but strangely charming British contract killer ready to pull the trigger, and a beautiful Swedish journalist whose choice of lover ends quite badly for her. I found this movie quite interesting, even though I'm not Swedish and I don't know a lot about Swedish politics.

On 28 February 1986, the Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme, was assassinated in Stockholm. The assassin has never been found. This movie tells the story of how the killing _might_ have happened, without pointing any fingers at who were pulling the threads. Swedish policeman Roger Nyman is promoted to the Special Branch/Secret police. He stumbles across the information that an international hitman is in Sweden. What is he up to? As Nyman uncovers the chilling truth, his investigation is ignored, if not directly hampered by his superiors.

The movie shows an interesting and vivid account of Sweden in the mid-eighties, and in a way accuses the Swedish general public of allowing an atmosphere to arise, in which the assassination became possible. But it also works as an exciting thriller, even if you have never heard the name Olof Palme before. A cross between "The Day of the Jackal" and Oliver Stone's "JFK" springs to mind. This movie deserves a larger audience than, as a Swedish film, it is probably going to get.

Being tired of watching U.S. detective and spy movies, with all their over used cliches (the spy who falls in love and must not, as in "The Saint", the nice looking hero who saves the free world, the Russians as being always the evil guys and sort of) all I can say about this one is that it recaptures the original meaning of detective movies, and shows us at the same time a new perspective (the troubles by keeping the detective job secret from the family, the unusual emotional ties between the assassin and a journalist, the passive role of the government in the crime, etc).

A very well time-paced movie with a intelligent and mature plot rarely seen in detective and action movies this days. I strongly recommend it.