The White Lioness

Wallander lands in South Africa for a conference, but gets entangled in a local case, involving a missing Swedish woman.

It's a very unusual story, the Swedish setting adds a bleak, dark layer, that atmosphere is of course absent here, instead we have the bold and dramatic imagery of Africa. We have the contrast of the very poor South Africa and the very affluent Sweden.

Branagh's great, wonderfully straight laced, I love that he doesn't play the hero here.

Bonnie Henna is tremendous as Sergeant Grace, incredibly charismatic, she really does steal the scenes.

8/10

...that's been don e numerous times and the 'revelation' falls flat. I also found it strange that when Branham first meets the Swedish spouse of the missing wife he doesn't even use a smidgen of Swedish

I have to say that Branagh's interpretation of the Swedish detective is quite bland. He seems to have little emotion, especially one of joy. The book character is interested in music and is able to laugh at times. While at a law enforcement conference, Kurt finds himself embroiled in South African politics after a white woman disappears. It is not as simple as finding out what happened to her. It involves cover-ups and reprisals. It also brings in the element of power. One normally thinks of the blacks versus the whites in this country and the issues related to Apartheid. But here, there is something involving a wealthy black man that hypocritically puts him in bed with the evil element. Kurt works with a young, black South African female cop. As is his wont, he launches himself into danger without carefully considering the consequences. The down side is the aforementioned lack of personality. A fair comment would be that taking the Swede out of Sweden sort of sterilizes everything. Not a bad offering, but kind of far afield.

The book is about Wallander stumbling over a murder and various odd bits of evidence and sending a telex. He never leaves Sweden. There is no South African woman detective. In fact the book is extremely boring. A good seven chapters in the Africa section could be pulled and never missed.

What we have in this episode, however, is good entertainment. It is far better than the book. Far better.

Compared to Wallander Seasons 1 to 3 the first episode of Season 4 was a major disappointment. There was very little continuity with the other Wallender episodes or any of the other Wallander series cast. If this was the only episode of Wallender I had seen of this series I would definitely have stopped watching. Very Slow and Boring.

After waiting a few years for the final season, I was hoping for a well thought out and performed episode. There is the possibility that the other Episodes of the final Wallander series 4 will be better, but I am not very optimistic. It is not clear if the Story was weak or just the acting or performance. Instead of having a Swedish policemen in South Africa it might have been a better idea for Wallender to remain in Sweden.