Mordlichter - Tod auf den Färöer Inseln (2025)

To sell the house belonging to her late parents, the determined 38-year-old journalist Johanna Vágar returns to her homeland in the Faroe Islands to handle the sale. The trauma of her childhood was the loss of her father, Jannick, who died at sea under unclear circumstances. Johanna’s real purpose takes a back seat when she discovers the body of a young French animal-rights activist on a rocky cliff. The young man has something like a harpoon in his back, casting suspicion on the locals, against whose bloody hunt for pilot whales a group of activists is fighting. The whale hunters are island men led by the fishermen Jacobsen and Brandur. Since Bjørg Helmsdal, a police officer and Johanna’s childhood friend, does not want to get into trouble, Johanna promises him she will keep a low profile as a journalist. That does not stop her from trying, with the help of the activist Harms and his ship’s crew, to find out what is apparently being covered up. The media report that the young Frenchman died in an accident. Francesca Campagnoli, one of Harms’s supporters, tells Johanna that whales live in family groups and always stay together, something the whalers take advantage of. When the men harpoon one animal, the others follow it of their own accord, because they never leave one another. Harms is frustrated that the whalers are always one step ahead of them and he has no idea how they do it. He discovers a transmitter on one of the animals. The men believe the whale hunters are illegally tagging the animals with tracking devices instead of spotting them, as they have done until now. Francesca believes the Frenchman, Pierre Durant, knew about the tracking software and was therefore killed. Johanna wants to know why people are saying his death was an accident. Francesca replies that among the locals, everyone covers for everyone else. Meanwhile, Helmsdal speaks with the pathologist, Dr. Lina, and makes her promise to discuss the case only with him for the time being. Back at his house, he is visited by Johanna. When she asks why people are saying the Frenchman’s death was an accident, he brusquely tells her to stay out of it: she does not know what is going on on the island between the activists and the whalers. It is a powder keg, and she is only a tourist. The door opens, and the fishermen Rókur and Jogvan Jacobsen rush in. Jacobsen asks Helmsdal why he had not taken part in the whale hunt. Helmsdal replies that he had been ill, but would take part again next year. “I certainly hope so,” Jacobsen answers. As he leaves, he tells Johanna not to forget that she is one of them. Shortly afterward, Johanna speaks with her colleague Elif and says that something very shady is going on here; if she is not mistaken, they are trying to cover up the activist’s murder. Johanna turns to Harms again and says that people on the island trust her, so perhaps she can find out who has the software on his computer. Harms tells her to take a closer look at Brandur Midjord, the most successful whale hunter. She can find him in Hoyvik. Johanna walks with Helmsdal to Brandur Midjord and his wife, Eva. Their children, Lea and Julian, are there too. Eva proudly tells Johanna that her husband is the best grindler—in other words, whale hunter—on the island. Unlike his sister, who follows in their father’s footsteps, Julian, who is a vegetarian, says he disapproves of whale hunting. Lea adds that it is unbearable how the activists badmouth them all over the world. Without warning, Brandur gives Johanna a necklace bearing a rune of fate, which is meant to remind her of her origins. Johanna spends the night with Bjørg. The next morning, Johanna gets a call from Francesca, who tells her that the previous evening’s grind was the worst ever and Harms is furious. When Johanna tells her that she has not yet been able to locate the computer software in question, Francesca simply replies that she cannot trust any of the locals. It is now also established that Pierre died of a fracture at the base of his skull and that the lance was driven into his back only after his death. Another car forces Johanna’s car off the road. Fortunately, Bjørg comes by and gives her a lift in his car. He tells her that it is not easy to stand up to tradition. He had deliberately chosen not to take part in the grind. He then shows Johanna the autopsy report and adds that Durant did not fall at the place where he was found. Someone had deliberately tried to make his death look as if the whalers were involved. When Johanna looks at the files from the USB stick she copied from Brandur’s computer, she is more than surprised. They are numerous childhood photos of her with her father. Shortly afterward, when Brandur appears at her place, all she can manage to say is, “This is sick. You’re my father, and you let me believe you were dead.” Then she runs away. Some time later, when Johanna asks her father why he left her and her mother and started a new family, he merely tells her to get on a plane and fly home; she does not belong on the island. After screaming out her despair on the beach, she asks to see her father’s death certificate. It says that he was burned beyond recognition at the time and identified by his wedding ring. After Francesca physically attacks marine biologist Paul Stefansson at a heated press conference, Harms no longer wants her on his team. Francesca also admits to Johanna that she drove the lance into Pierre’s back when he was already dead. It also seems that the claim that the whalers are tagging the whales is untrue. As a result of the attack, Harms’s organization is no longer allowed to dock on the island. Francesca apologizes to the Faroese, but also explains how terrible the slaughter of the whales is to her. Johanna is also questioned by the reporter. Her answer gives him pause for thought. She says that whale hunting is a very old tradition on the island. The problem, however, is that with every grind, an entire pod of whales is wiped out. She is no expert, but people should imagine what it would be like if the whales simply disappeared one day. That would be the saddest day for the Faroe Islands. A whale family stays together for life; its members would give their lives for one another. People could learn a lot from that. At Johanna’s urgent request, Bjørg Helmsdal digs up the supposed body of Johanna’s father with her and helps her investigate who was actually buried there. Johanna receives an ominous message telling her to go to a meeting place. While reading it, however, she slips and falls onto a rocky ledge, with the raging water below her. She is lucky: the fisherman Rókur happens to find her and takes her to Brandur’s family. Helmsdal has meanwhile discovered that an Alain Moiret was reported missing on the island around the time Johanna’s father was supposedly killed. At the same time, Brandur has made up his mind to tell Johanna what happened back then, but wants her to leave the island immediately afterward. Thirty years ago, he had returned by boat from a grind. The weather had been terrible that day. Suddenly, a crazy activist came toward him in his boat. Brandur had been furious because the activists had once again driven the whales away, and then charged straight at him in his boat, while the activist held his course. The boats collided. Brandur was thrown against the side of his boat. When he came to, the other man was dead. He had wanted to spare her the shame of having to live with the knowledge that her father was a murderer. In the end, it turns out that Jogvan Jacobsen really is tagging whales. Brandur calls him a liar. Jacobsen defends himself, replying that otherwise the damn activists are always there before them and drive the whales away. It also emerges that Pierre was the son of the Frenchman who was killed at sea back then. Both died from skull fractures. During a dramatic scene aboard Jacobsen’s fishing boat, in which Johanna is in serious danger, the whole truth comes to light. Jacobsen killed both Frenchmen, father and son, and for 30 years let Johanna’s father believe that he was responsible for Alain Moiret’s death.