Beck 29 - Invasion (2015)

Touches You

Memorable, crazy movie

Don't Believe the Hype

The acting in this movie is really good.

At first it seems as if this episode of BECK is going to address the contentious subject of racism in contemporary Sweden, as the two police officers investigate a case involving the murder of two immigrants and encounter a crippled white supremacist who believes that the entire incident is a prelude to an Islamist attempt to subvert Swedish democracy.In the end, however, Stephan Apelgren's drama embraces a more liberal point of view as it shows how illegal immigrants have been ruthlessly exploited by a European business person (Simon Norrthon) prepared to go to any lengths to clear his name. The action shows how the concept of delegation - a staple of contemporary management - can be used to absolve people of responsibility. Passing on the job to others engenders an "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy. What renders this episode noteworthy is its refusal to take itself too seriously, despite the seriousness of its subject-matter. Gunvald Larsson (Mikael Persbrandt) has a joke or two at Beck's (Peter Haber's) expense over Haber's nascent love-affair with pathologist Gunilla (Anu Sinisalo); and later on has a laugh or two at tyro detective Oskar's (Måns Nathanaelson's) expense as the younger officer vainly tries to continue working while simultaneously worrying about his wife's impending birth. Even Ayda Çetin (Elmira Arıkan) has the chance to exchange some banter with young officer Jenny (Anna Asp) over the latter's refusal to speak much.Nonetheless such moments do not detract from the basic thrust of this episode, which serves to remind us of the destructive consequences of capitalist exploitation.

In the opening scenes we first see two children playing soldiers in the wood until they stumble upon two poorly buried bodies. Soon afterwards there is a murder; the victim is a Muslim man who ran an apparently reputable business. A check of his finances suggests that he may have been money laundering and since some of the items he bought could possibly be used to make explosives a terrorist involvement is contemplated and the security services are called in. Evidence leads the police to a local company but the manager claims to have no knowledge of the dead man or Chechen man seen leaving the building near the time of the murder… it would appear that his heavily pregnant cleaner knows him though.This was another enjoyable instalment of this Swedish crime drama. The mystery is interesting although I'm sure most viewers will guess who the killer was… the fact that we were shown the Chechen man at the crime scene made it obvious to anybody who watches murder mysteries that it wasn't him! Peter Haber does a fine job as the eponymous detective Martin Beck but once again it is Mikael Persbrandt who steals the show as his colleague Gunvald Larsson… a character who provides most of the shows laughs made all the better because he is played so straight; the way he deals with a racist with an unregistered pistol and later drives a colleague and his pregnant wife to the hospital were hilarious. There are moments of tension too; at one point it looked as if one of the team was going to be killed by the SWAT team sent to their location. Overall another decent episode that nicely combines a good mystery, some tense moments and unforced humour.These comments are based on watching the episode in Swedish with English subtitles.

Whenever Swedish media tries to come close to the subject of immigrants and crime then they become so full of political correctness (in Sweden called "PK") that it ends up being embarrassing and painful to watch or read.I imagine that the people of North Korea are treated to the same amount of bullshit from their media and government as the Swedes are.In this flick no immigrants are bad at all and every chance is taken to explain their every move and every reason. Only the white guys are bad.As usual there are of course no women bad guys at all, only men. And again, only the white guys are bad.