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A group of armed men setting off at dawn into the wilderness for an organized hunt. An air of mystery and suspense hanging over the scene, a sort of heightened ironic awareness of an ordinariness that is, perhaps, not so ordinary after all? Cut to a bloodied woman stumbling through a woods, clearly in fear for her life. *gulp* Is this a Most Dangerous Game deal? Are the hunters hunting people for sport? Alas, False Trail turns out to be a much more commonplace kind of crime story -- any irony I perceived was pure wishful thinking. The good stuff starts with the chilly rough elegance of the study of a rural Swedish town as sketched via the interactions between the local small-town cop (Peter Stormare) and the Stockholm investigator (Rolf Lassgård) brought into help look into the disappearance -- and, we and they presume, the murder -- of that bloodied woman.

False Trail

Stars: Peter Stormare, Rolf Lassgård, Annika Nordin, Kim Tjernström, Lo Kauppi, Jesper Barkselius | Written by Björn Carlström, Stefan Thunberg | Directed by Kjell Sundvall

We all know by now that Swedish mystery thrillers are popular, we?ve had Headhunters to name a movie, and of course The Killing as an example of the television presence. It seems nowadays all they have to do is advertise the fact that it?s a murder mystery based in Sweden and everyone just loves it. False Trail, also known as Jägarna 2, is another one of these, but also a sequel to Jägarna which I’?ve not seen yet. This does not hold False Trail back from being enjoyable, the important parts of the plot are all included in flashbacks and references in the plot.

False Trail starts in quite the usual way of a detective having to return to his home town...

This Monday (10 December), Arrow Films - the UK distributors of The Killing and The Bridge - will be releasing The Hunters (the 1996 prequel to director Kjell Sundvall's False Trail), on DVD for the very first time in the UK. Featuring the star of the original Swedish Wallander, Rolf Lassgård, The Hunters (previously released in Sweden under its original title Jägarna) is a dark, twisted Nordic Noir set in against the scenic backdrop of Norrland. Thanks to Arrow Films, we have Three DVD copies of the film set to give away to our readership. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.

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Released in Sweden as Jägarna 2 (Hunters 2), False Trail is an overlong sequel to Kjell Sundvall's 1996 Scandinavian noir, Jägarna. The careworn Rolf Lassgård (TV's Kurt Wallander) stars as a homicide cop dispatched from Stockholm to investigate the disappearance of a local woman on his old stamping ground, the bleak, thinly populated, clannish Norrland, ie the northernmost part of Sweden. There he comes into conflict with a local cop and longtime foe played by the formidable Peter Stormare in much the same vein as the Coen brothers' Fargo. Once you get a hold on the complex backstory, the result is both gripping and disturbing.

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Released in Sweden as Jägarna 2 (Hunters 2), False Trail is an overlong sequel to Kjell Sundvall's 1996 Scandinavian noir, Jägarna. The careworn Rolf Lassgård (TV's Kurt Wallander) stars as a homicide cop dispatched from Stockholm to investigate the disappearance of a local woman on his old stamping ground, the bleak, thinly populated, clannish Norrland, ie the northernmost part of Sweden. There he comes into conflict with a local cop and longtime foe played by the formidable Peter Stormare in much the same vein as the Coen brothers' Fargo. Once you get a hold on the complex backstory, the result is both gripping and disturbing.

CrimeThrillerCoen brothersPhilip French

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As the popularity of Swedish crime fiction continues to grow exponentially (seemingly on a weekly basis) another cinematic offering, False Trail, comes to UK cinema screens this week.

The film is actually the sequel to a little-known 1996 feature called Jägarna, but you don’t need to have seen this to your enjoy what’s on offer here, as the makers have managed to explain away the backstory of the major characters in a way which doesn’t distract from the thrust of the story.

Erik Backstrom (Rolf Lassgård – star of the original Wallander) is a weary homicide detective who returns from the urban landscape of Stockholm to the small rural community in the north of Sweden where he grew up. Backstrom has some skeletons in his closet (the basis of the original film) which has kept him away for a long time, but his skills are needed when a local...

★★★☆☆ Another quality release courtesy of Arrow Films' Nordic Noir stable, Kjell Sundvall's 2011 film False Trail (a direct sequel to his 1996 outing Jägarna, aka The Hunters), is a suitably dark, snaking tale of familial secrets and lies set against the expansive Swedish pine forests. Borrowing elements from some of Scandinavia's finest recent exports (both Wallander and The Killing are clear influences), Sundvall's thriller may not feel as fresh or as cutting as it perhaps should. Yet, what False Trail sets out to do, it does remarkably well - with particular praise reserved for two dominant performances from Rolf Lassgård and the ever-watchable Peter Stormare.

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Swedish director Kjell Sundvall returns to the big screen this December with False Trail (Jägarna 2), the follow-up to his 1996 crime-thriller, The Hunters (Jägarna).

Rolf Lassgård reprises his leading role from the original, alongside the great Peter Stormare, and with the film arriving on our shores next month, we’ve been given an exclusive set of images to share.

“Brought to you by the distributors of The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge, False Trail is the latest Nordic Noir thriller to hit the big screen in the UK. Set in an isolated town in the frozen wastelands of northern Sweden, False Trail is dark, twisted murder investigation that devastates a local community.

It’s been fifteen years since Erik (LASSGÅRD) was forced to leave the Norrland Police Department. Since then he has become the National Murder Commission’s best interrogator. When Erik’s boss orders him back to his home...

Some details on a European horror film are filtering this way for the film False Trail aka Hunters 2. This is director Kjell Sundvall's second go at material that involves poaching and family loyalty. False Trail has been completed in Swedish and the film follows 1996's Hunters. As well, an early film poster is now showing, which puts one woman on the run and several men on her trail. Release details are below.

The synopsis for False Trail is here:

"It's been 15 years since Eric (Rolf Lassgård) tragically forced to leave his police service in Northern Sweden. A brutal crime in his self-made causes him now reluctant to return. But what initially looked like a routine mission develops step by step to a worse nightmare than Erik ever could have imagined" (Film Pool).

Release Date: August 17th, 2011 (Sweden), September 16, 2011 (Norway).

Director: Kjell Sundvall.

Writer: Björn Carlström, Stefan Thunberg, and Rolf Lassgård.