Kurt Wallander (Swedish pronunciation: [valˈlanːdər]) is a fictional character created by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell. The protagonist of several mystery novels, set in and around the town of Ystad, 60 km south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Skåne. Wallander has been portrayed on screen by the actors Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson and Kenneth Branagh.
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As a young police officer, he was nearly killed when a drunk whom he was questioning stabbed him with a butcher's knife (this is mentioned in the account of his first case). Wallander was once married, but his wife Mona left him and he has since had a difficult relationship with his rebellious only child, Linda, who just barely survived a suicide attempt when she was fifteen. He also had issues with his late father, an artist who painted the same landscape 7,000 times for a living; the elder Wallander strongly disapproved of his son's decision to join the police force, and frequently derided him for it.
Inspector Wallander has few close friends and is known for his less-than-desirable lifestyle; he consumes too much alcohol and junk food, exercises very little, and sometimes struggles with anger. He frequently regards the crimes he investigates on a very personal level, throwing himself into catching criminals and going against the orders of his superiors to try to solve a case.
Over the years he has grown increasingly disillusioned with his work, and often wonders whether he should have become a police officer at all. He was once falsely sued and harassed for police brutality, and still lives with the guilt of having shot and killed a man in the fog, an act which drove him into depression and nearly led to his resignation. His relationships with his colleagues are tentative; they are alternately amazed by his intellect and frustrated by his brusque manner and aggressive tactics.
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, until it eventually dissolves. Over the course of the series he is diagnosed with diabetes, and towards the end of his career he suffers from memory lapses, discovering he has developed Alzheimer's disease, with which his father was similarly afflicted.
The following Kurt Wallander novels have been translated into English. They are listed in the order that they were originally published in Sweden:
The following novel features Wallander's daughter Linda in the lead, while he is a secondary character:
One Kurt Wallander work has not yet been translated into English:
The order that the novels occur in the timeline of the series is shown below (with the title of the English translation shown in parentheses). Note that there is some overlap in the timeline among the novels as there are three separate series.[1]
Between 1994 and 2007, all nine Wallander novels were made into films in Sweden starring Rolf Lassgård as Wallander:
From 2005 to 2006, 13 new stories, starring Krister Henriksson as Kurt Wallander and Johanna Sällström as Linda Wallander, were produced. The first film, based on Before the Frost, was released in cinemas. The rest are original stories not based on any of Mankell's books, and were released on DVD, with the exception of Mastermind which was also released in cinemas.
Two of these films were directed by BAFTA award winning Swedish director Jonas Grimås, who outside Sweden is best known for his work on British television such as the 1990s crime drama Second Sight (Kingdom of the Blind) starring Clive Owen, police drama series Heartbeat, and Hamish Macbeth.[2]
Yellow Bird announced in March 2008 that 13 new Swedish language Wallander films were to be made with Krister Henriksson. Production started in 2008. These new films were to have a more political slant than the previous films starring Henriksson.[3][4] The first production in the second series, The Revenge (Hämnden), was given a cinematic launch in Sweden on 9 January 2009 before being released on DVD. The theme over the closing edits is "Quiet Night", sung by Anna Ternheim. The remaining were scheduled to be released on DVD during early 2010:
The novels have also been adapted as nine television films for the BBC, produced by Yellow Bird and Left Bank Pictures. The series stars Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. The novels have not been filmed in the order in which they were published, resulting in changes to the backstories of the lead characters in the films. The first series consisted of the novels Sidetracked, Firewall and One Step Behind. These three were shot on location in Ystad in the summer of 2008, with a combined budget of £6 million ($12 million), using Jim Jannard's RED camera (as described in the documentary contained on the BBC DVD).[6] They aired in late 2008 on the BBC.
A second series of Wallander adaptations were commissioned by the BBC from the same production team in 2008. Broadcast in January 2010, the second series was composed of adaptations of Faceless Killers, The Man Who Smiled, and The Fifth Woman.
The third series began shooting in Ystad and Riga, Latvia in the Summer of 2011 and will continue into the winter. It will consist of adaptations of Händelse om hösten (The Grave), which has been retitled An Event in Autumn, The Dogs of Riga and Before the Frost.
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 above suspicion). Guillou and 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.[7]