Behind Bars

The anatomy of a prison is explored in two new series led by incredible casts this March with the Danish Prisoner starring Sofie Gråbøl (The Killing, The Shift) and Italian The King starring Luca Zingaretti (Detective Montalbano). Each of these series sends us on a search for the line between doing the right thing and being a serial law-breaker, if that line even exists at all. 

In Prisoner, our tour of a run-down Danish prison is given through the eyes of a newbie guard on his first day. Sammi (Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt) begins his job with idyllic enthusiasm, but is swiftly reprimanded for disrupting an obvious drug trafficking operation. Looking the other way to keep the peace is the prison’s modus operandi, but not for long. Under threat of closure, the guards have to restore order against the current anything-goes approach. This is welcome news for Miriam (Sofie Gråbøl), a veteran guard who brings a touch of humanity to her work. She, along with Sammi and most of the other prison guards have dimensions to their characters outside the prison walls, which boils over into a battle for survival.

The prison setting for the Italian drama The King seems to run like a well-oiled machine of order and discipline. Bruno Testori, the prison director, is played by Luca Zingaretti who is best known for portraying the beloved Detective Montalbano. In this role however, we see a darker, more brooding dimension to Zingaretti as his character Bruno deals with the murder of his good friend and commander of the prison guards Nicola Laccarino (Giorgio Colangeli, Imma Tataranni). Nicola’s murder tears at Bruno’s old wounds while state prosecutor Laura Lombardo (Anna Bonaiuto) begins to suspect Bruno’s successful reputation as being too good to be true. 

Lighter Crime Dramas

March gets glimpses of sunnier vistas with two new crime dramas from Italy and Denmark. Shot mostly in Salerno, Italy and along the Amalfi Coast, Vincenzo Malinconico: The Italian Lawyer centers around the semi-unemployed lawyer Vincenzo (Massimiliano Gallo, Imma Tataranni). His client portfolio is light, his love life is incomplete and his work is less than stimulating. After a series of chance events, Vincenzo finds himself intrigued about a case and ends up defending the mob. The series is based on the popular novels by Diego De Silva.

Also set in a seaside town, White Sands brings together German detective Thomas Beckmann (Carsten Bjørnlund) and Danish undercover cop Helene Falck (Marie Bach Hansen) to solve the murder of a German politician’s brother. The mismatched duo have to pretend that they are indeed well matched since they are undercover and posing as a married couple who moves to the Danish seaside town where the murder took place.

Also in March

Venturing into the unexplained, French thriller The Returned is set in a small mountain town where the presumed dead begin to return home years after their deaths. Loved ones of the now not deceased picking up the pieces of shock is only the starting point. Something more sinister is lurking in the connections between the recently reappeared and a serial killer currently haunting the small town.