DVD REVIEW: ÄNGELBY

Shane | 13 April 2017 | Reply

DVD REVIEW: ÄNGELBY
Starring Mia Skäringer, Göran Ragnerstam, Joel Spira
Shock Entertainment
March 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8 ½ /10

ÄNGELBY comes from the same Swedish broadcasters that brought us The Bridge and Jordskott, and it is an intriguing mixture of crime thriller, small town drama, and supernatural mystery.

Mia Skäringer stars as Vera, a recently separated and unemployed mother of two, who finds herself a bit lost in life, suddenly. Determined to land on her feet – if only to prove her ex wrong – Vera takes a job in the small town of Ängelby, but has an accident as she drives there in the night, which leaves a teenage boy dead. In shock, she covers up the death, later confessing to the police, but the body has gone missing in the interim, and when it does turn up, it appears he died before Vera’s car hit him.

What starts as a quirky mystery soon introduces some eccentric characters and mystical elements – subtle parallels might be made to Twin Peaks – and a strange meteorite in the woods may be involved… but only Vera seems able to provide the answers – answers she doesn’t know yet.

Skäringer especially is very realistic as a woman in freefall who tries so hard to find a purpose, little knowing that her destiny is in front of her all along, and the supporting cast are uniformly solid, especially Göran Ragnerstam as Vera’s new boss Torsten.

Over twelve episodes – in Swedish, with English subtitles – the viewer gets to immerse in the small town life of Ängelby, and become more and more sympathetic to Vera’s struggles, before the final surprising twist.

www.shock.com.au