The White Lioness

Starring:Rolf LassgÃ¥rd, Charlotte Sieling, Cecilia Zwick-Nash, Ernst GÃ¼nther, Basil Appollis, Denise Newman, Tshamano Sebe, Marius Weyers, Dipuo Huma, Lee-Ann Van Rooi, Gideon De Wet, Jesper Christensen, Rino Brezina, Boel Larsson, Siw Erixon, Pontus Gustafsson, BjÃ¶rn Granath, Sissela Kyle, Ã…ke JÃ¶rnfalk, Joakim Narin
Director: Per Berglund
Studio: Vanguard Cinema
Product Type: DVD

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The third of a series of Swedish mysteries featuring small-town Police Inspector Kurt Wallander (based on the novels of Henning Mankell), this one drops the doughy, middle-aged crime solver in the midst of an international conspiracy. It all starts in South Africa, when a pro-apartheid conspirator sends a gaunt, steely-eyed former KGB assassin (icy Jesper Christensen) and a black hit man to Sweden to train for a unnamed killing. The sleepy little town gets a jolt when their hideout is destroyed in a fireball and the remains found in the ashes--a precision firearm, a sophisticated, high-powered radio, and a severed human thumb--lead Wallander back to South Africa. The scenes of beefy Nordic Wallander in a sea of black faces, appalled at the poverty and a little out of his element but always the egalitarian Swede, are among the best of the movie. Rolf Lassgård plays Wallander as a modest, amiable everyman and a dogged investigator tossed into an extreme situation, fumbling at a shootout and clumsily giving chase through frozen city streets but never shirking duty or danger. Director Pelle Berglund sets a deliberate, at times dawdling pace hampered by obscure side trips into Wallander's private life, but fills the film with a combustible conspiracy and terrific characters, notably Christensen's arrogant, icy killer and Basil Appollis's cool, charismatic South African police detective, John September. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

The White Lioness.......2007-01-11

A strong entry in the unfortunately sparse selection of the Rolf Lassgard series on DVD with English subtitles. Stays very close to the book. Good juxtaposition of Swedish and South African landscapes and climates.

A better than average TV movie.......2004-01-20

Fans of novelist Henning Mankell will enjoy this film, if only for the opportunity to see police inspector Kurt Wallander brought to life on the small screen. This film is only a loose adaptation of Mankell's novel (which is probably too complex to film in its entirety, in any case), and those expecting a faithful treatment may be a little disappointed; however, it succeeds in capturing the essence of Wallander's world, and that alone makes it worthwhile viewing. It's also a well-paced crime drama, with a suitably nail-biting climax.

TV adaptations of most of Mankell's novels have been made, but so far this is the only one that seems to be widely available outside of Sweden. Let's hope that someone sees fit to release the rest of them!

Good suspense and scenes of Sweden & South Africa.......2003-01-25

I watched this movie first, then now reading the original novel.

Obviously, this movie seems going after "The day of the Jackel" in many points, and different far from its original.
But I take this movie, rather than the novel.
This movie is free from most of the defects of the original - the lack of consistency (though still opportunistic in some points).

Besides, you can travel the scenes of both of Swedish suburben and South African city (mostly its people's life scenes).

The images are graceful, from which you would feel the dark, cold atmosphere of southern Sweden, and dry South African air.

And I suppose I don't mind the darkness of its images another reviewer pointed out based on the VHS edition - the staff might consider her/his cliticism when they produced this DVD edition.

Pretty Good.......2003-01-03

Pretty Good for Swedish, I think Made for TV, international detective movie

Photography too dark, plot nothing like the novel.......2000-08-01

For those who have read the novel The White Lioness and are expecting a faithful adaptation, this movie is not for you. While it is understandable that many times plots are rewritten for film, the sudden change of the assasination attempt from South Africa to Norway is confusing to me. The photography of the film leaves much to be desired too. The lighting is simply too dark, making it almost impossible to see the faces of the many black characters in this film. I've seen movies from Scandinavia better made than this one. If you want a good suspensful Scandinavian movie, try Insomnia instead.

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