Kurt Wallander
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Kurt Wallander is a fictional Swedish police inspector created by author Henning Mankell. The protagonist of many of Mankell's novels, he lives and works in the town of Ystad, 60 km south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Skåne, Sweden.
Wallander was born in approximately 1948, and has been divorced since his wife, Mona, left him. He has one daughter, Linda, who eventually joins the police force as well. He has few close friends and had a tempestuous relationship with his elderly father prior to his death. His father was an artist, heading towards dementia in his later years, who painted the same landscape approximately 7,000 times.
Mankell's style (at least after translation into English) is spare and succinct. Part of Wallander's appeal as a character is his comparative ordinariness; he is a middle-aged "everyman" without terrible secrets or exceptional failings. Prone to eat poorly, sleep irregularly, drink too much, and not get enough exercise, he must also deal with diabetes and weight management problems. He also has a quick temper.
Wallander's concerns center around his job, of which he grows increasingly weary. He often wonders whether he made the right choice by becoming a police officer. He breaks the law from time to time in the course of his investigations and was sued for police brutality early in his career. Wallander struggles with the fact that he once accidentally shot and killed a man in the fog. He has been caught drunk-driving, though his fellow officers never reported him.
Frequently at loose ends socially and with his family, he maintains a somewhat inconsistent romantic relationship with Baiba Liepa, a woman in Riga, Latvia, whom he met while investigating a murder there.
Mankell's portrayal of him might apply to many other men of Wallander's generation—dedicated and hard-working, but disoriented in a changing world whose social and moral fractures are reflected in its gruesome crimes. The novels describe a Sweden whose time seems to have passed, a society that aspires to cherish the dignity of all, but is nibbled from within by worms of corruption, struggling to find its way.
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[edit] Novels
The following Kurt Wallander novels (in chronological order) have been translated into English:
- Faceless Killers (Mördare utan ansikte)
- The Dogs of Riga (Hundarna i Riga)
- The White Lioness (Den vita lejoninnan)
- The Man Who Smiled (Mannen som log)
- Sidetracked (Villospår)
- The Fifth Woman (Den femte kvinnan)
- One Step Behind (Steget efter)
- Firewall (Brandvägg)
- The Pyramid (Pyramiden), a collection of short stories about Wallander's past.
The following novel features Wallander's daughter Linda in the lead, while he is a secondary character:
- Before the Frost (Innan frosten)
The following Kurt Wallander works have not yet been translated into English:
- Händelse om hösten (The Grave), a short story from 2004 published only in The Netherlands.
[edit] TV & film
Faceless Killers, The Dogs of Riga, The White Lioness, Sidetracked, The Fifth Woman, One Step Behind, Firewall, The Pyramid have all been made into films in Sweden starring Rolf Lassgård as Wallander.
Between 2005 and 2006 thirteen new films have been created featuring Inspector Wallander. With the exception of the first film, Before The Frost, all of the scripts are original screenplays rather than adaptations of the books. Actor Krister Henriksson plays the part of Wallander in these new productions. Two of these films were directed by BAFTA award winning Swedish director Jonas Grimås, who outside Sweden is best know for his work on British television such as 1990s crime drama Second Sight (Kingdom of the Blind) starring Clive Owen, police drama series Heartbeat and Hamish Macbeth. [1]
The BBC commissioned a three-part television series to be produced by Yellow Bird and Left Bank Pictures for 2009 broadcast. The series will star Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. The novels Sidetracked, Firewall and One Step Behind will be shot on location in Ystad. The three films are expected to cost a combined total of £6 million ($12 million) to produce. [2]
Yellowbird announced in March 2008 that 13 new Swedish language Wallander films were to be made with Krister Henriksson. Production starts 2008. This means that both the Swedish language production and the BBC production will be shooting in Ystad during the summer of 2008. These new films will have a more political touch then the previous films starring Henriksson.[3] [4]
[edit] Special appearances
Mankell's friend and writer Jan Guillou used Kurt Wallander in the 10th book of his Carl Hamilton-series En medborgare höjd över varje misstanke (A citizen beyond any suspicion). Guillou och Mankell also co-wrote the Swedish crime-drama mini series Talismanen and here we also encounter Kurt Wallander as a supporting character, this time portrayed by actor Lennart Jähkel. [5] [6]
[edit] External links
- Official Henning Mankell site
- Comprehensive Henning Mankell fan site
- Kurt Wallander's Ystad
- In the Footsteps of Wallander PDF document from Ystad Tourist Office with map of places referred to in the novels.
- Article in Variety concerning plans to bring Wallander to British television
- Yellow Bird site
