Les enquêtes d'Erica: L'enfant allemand (TV movie)

Camilla Läckberg is one of the most well-known Swedish crime fiction authors and her novels set in her birth town, Fjällbacka, having as protagonists the married duo of Erica Falk and Patrik Hedström have been translated into at least 40 languages in 60 countries. Erica Falk, the main protagonist of the Fjällbacka crime series, is an alter-ego of Läckberg, as she is too a writer of true crime books. Her husband, Patrik is the second protagonist in the books, a Police Criminal Investigator in the small town of Fjällbacka that seems, despite its minimal size, to be the setting of several cruel and resentful homicides. Together, Erika and Patrik will solve some of the most challenging cases that always seem to have their roots in a traumatic past and broken relationships. Läckberg usually uses a double timeline narrative, narrating her stories in the present through Erika and Patrik's point of view, while there are always interjecting chapters that chronicle a story buried in the past. As it is often in Nordic noir novels the present and past timeline begin to merge as the plot evolves and they finally meet each other in the book's ending.

The director of The Hidden Child (original title: Tyskungen), Per Hanefjord, uses the same narrative technique, as the audience is witnessing the story that unravels in the present and at the same time the past timeline where the main characters of the plot are very young, during the years of Second World War. It should be noted that part of the film was shot in is well-known that Sweden took the neutral line and supported neither the Nazi regime of Germany nor the Allied forces. On the other hand, neighboring Norway was at war with the Germans and subsequently, the country became occupied under the commands of the Nazis. This is, in short, an account of the Scandinavian history during 1939-1945. It is that story that inspires Läckberg in this novel which begins with a stranger visiting Erika in her house to tell her that he is her half-sibling, born by the same mother in the 1940s, during the Second World War. Erika initially doesn't believe him and tells him to get out of her house, but the idea has been planted on her head, and when her so-called brother is found murdered in his hotel room, she is going to embark on a journey back to her mother's early years in Fjällbacka. Erika will meet several friends of her mother's that include a notorious neo-nazi who is incarcerated in a high-security Swedish prison who was in love with her, a war hero and author who was a close friend of her mother, and an elderly woman who is suffering from Alzheimer's and seems to want desperately to tell Erika something important.

The plot of the film is similar to that of the book and this is nice as The Hidden Child is perhaps the best installment of the Falk/Hedström so far, and the story is full of twists and surprises with the whodunit element ever-present. The revelation of the culprit in the finale as well as the final explanation of the mystery is unpredictable and overall satisfying. I've also seen the other adaptations by the same producers that stand at a far lower level than The Hidden Child. It should be added, for the zealous fans of Camilla Läckberg's body of work, that there is also another television version of the Fjällbacka novels with Elisabet Carlsson in the role of Erika and Niklas Hjulström as Patrik (four films in total).

Aka THE HIDDEN CHILD is a poignant post-WW2 drama. The mystery twists and turns as a writer, upon discovering a hidden brother, searches for answers in her mother's past. Believable characters, great performances, interesting story. A friend soured this for me when I was tracking down the filmography of Amelia Holm (then 18). It was worth the hunt. I give this film a 7 (good) out of 10. {Mystery, Drama}

This has big enough plot holes for an elephant to fall down.

Where to start?

How did the the Neo Nazi know how to contact Elsy's adopted son? How did he track him down? He's in prison, for on thing. How on earth would he be able to get any of this information?

Indeed, why is he even a Neo Nazi - it has v little to do with the plot.

The whole denouement did my head in.

Who is who and what is what? I had to go back and watch it again speeded-up to try to work out all the little hints here and there,

It could have been a great and moving story, but wasn't.

How did Erika's husband get so quickly to where she'd just been taken off on a 7 hour road trip? Did he have a jet plane?

The characters are all really bland, especially the main characters. Especially Erika. There is absolutely no spark of interest in her at all. No charisma, nothing.

What a bore.

¨Some footprints can never be erased.¨

The Hidden Child is a Swedish film directed by Per Hanefjord based on Camilla Lackberg's 2007 best selling crime novel. It is actually Lackberg's fifth novel in the series based on Erika Falck and Patrik Hedstrom's crime investigations in their native Swedish town of Fjallbacka. I have personally never read any of these novels, but the tone and style of the film reminded me a lot of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy because they both try to uncover a crime that occurred several decades ago. The story and the mystery worked well, but the major problem I had with this film had to do with the characters that had no depth to them whatsoever. Every character was simply introduced to move the story forward and even the main character had no personal trait other than that of a detective. The story was gripping and engaging, but the characters I could care less for. The Hidden Child is a decent film, but one that I wouldn't recommend.

When Erika's (Claudia Galli Concha) parents pass away after a tragic car accident, a mysterious man shows up at their home claiming to be Erika's half-brother. Erika's mother never mentioned anything about having another son, so she doesn't believe him and asks him to leave. The next day the man is found dead in his hotel room and Erika decides to investigate more about her mother's past. She discovers her journal and finds some secrets about her past. Patrik (Richard Ulfsater), Erika's husband, is a police officer who confirms the DNA results that in fact this man was Erika's half-brother. Together they begin trying to find leads as to who might have murdered this man, and Erika begins by interviewing some of her mother's old friends that she mentioned in her journal. While the investigation continues several bodies begin to pile up as everything seems to be connected to her mother's past during the Second World War. Apparently someone is trying to keep the past hidden in the dark and doesn't want Erika to uncover the past.

Claudia Galli gives a strong lead performance despite not having much to work with. She simply does her detective work without any distinct personality and gets the story moving forward in a rather fast pace. The film is told in flashbacks through the memory of the characters she interviews. The rest of the characters are all pretty much flat as well and there is nothing memorable about them. The story is gripping and engaging, but the characters are far from it. Half way through the film it becomes rather predictable as to how the mystery is going to unfold so that was a bit of letdown. The scenery in this film was quite beautiful as it was filmed almost entirely on location. This could have been a better film if the characters were given some more depth and not just introduced to move along the story.

A great book (maybe, Lackberg's best novel), but directed in such a controversial way that ruins most 'characters'. It should have been a cinema movie (not a TV movie).