Norwegian drama has kidnapped my credulity
The Lorenskog Disappearance Netflix
In 2018, Norwegian police received a phone call from billionaire businessman, Tom Hagen.
His wife, he said, had been kidnapped but he had been told that if he tried to contact the police she would be murdered.
The officers were forced to keep their investigation a secret, which somewhat hampered matters: they couldn’t question witnesses or appeal to the public.
As a result their inquiries were bungled and the main suspect in the extremely carefully orchestrated kidnapping may have been closer to the Hagen home.
The Lorenskog Disappearance is a dramatised version of the case, rather like the Colin Firth drama The Staircase.
Like that tale, and its bizarre suggestion of a deadly, late-night owl attack, Lorenskog leaves a lot up to the viewer as to how much of the stories you believe.
Unlike The Staircase, Lorenskog is perhaps less suggestive about the guilt of the main suspect.
Instead it is damning about the detectives, whose credulity seems to know no limits.
It also unfolds procedurally with few directorial flourishes, leaving it looking like a fancy episode of Doctors at times.
Do yourself a favour and watch with the subtitles on; the Norwegian actors do a better job than the seemingly two voice actors dubbing the action into English.