Der Dänemark-Krimi: Rauhnächte (2021)

Because of personal disagreements with her boyfriend, patrol officer Ida Sörensen would rather take the night shift at the police station in Ribe for her colleague Magnus Vinter. There is a great deal of commotion there, as the former Viking town is celebrating the Wild Hunt in full swing that night—the end of the Twelve Nights. As a result, the normally conscientious police officer fails to recognize Smilla Vestergaard, who has been missing for days, when she suddenly appears in front of her desk, completely disheveled, and begs for help in vain. Shortly afterward, the girl’s trail disappears into the crowd once more. When Smilla comes to, she finds herself in the power of the kidnapper she had escaped from only shortly before. He has chained her up again in the middle of the wilderness, using a steel chain attached to a wooden stake, and this time he has also bound her hands. The next day, Sörensen faces serious accusations. In particular, ambitious detective Frida Olsen, who has come from Esbjerg, asks many uncomfortable questions and does not spare Ida’s private life. The young officer can hardly believe her own mistake, blames herself bitterly, and immediately does everything she can to find the missing Smilla. During her investigation, the courageous police officer discovers that the series of murders began with the disappearance of young Jonna Fisker twenty years earlier; her bones were not found until two years ago. Shortly afterward, a series of murders began that has remained unsolved. Both conservationist Avid Roer and the dead woman’s brother, Tjelle Fisker, come under suspicion of having something to do with the crime. Sörensen’s painstaking investigation leads to Smilla being found and rescued. When the police officer apologizes to her, Smilla whispers that it is not over yet: her tormentor will not rest until he has claimed his final victim too. The culprit is Tjelle Fisker, who has discovered that his sister was on a hiking trip with the people who became his victims. Along with the people already found dead—two women and a man—Smilla Vestergaard also took part in the trip. Jonna Fisker flirted with a photographer who, to Sörensen’s dismay, turns out to have been her partner, Jannik Larsen. The couple argued at the time, and Larsen left Jonna behind after she broke her ankles in a shove from him. Larsen did not know that Jonna had been injured so badly she could no longer walk by herself. The young woman, barely able to move, starved and died of thirst. Tjelle Fisker now wants everyone who left his sister alone in the wilderness back then to go through the same thing. That is why he now abducts Jannik Larsen as well, after first gaining his trust. At what is practically the last moment, Sörensen manages to disrupt his plan, putting her own life in danger. After her colleague Magnus Vinter shoots Fisker in self-defense, Larsen tells Ida that it all happened so long ago. “That doesn’t matter,” she replies. He knew about the murders and knew their background, yet said nothing. Then she turns away from him and walks off sadly.