TRAVELOGUE
As we cross the Flinte Channel to Malmo, I see
why this region lends itself so well to the ‘slow crime’ trend. We’re not talking bruised skies and grey desolation but rather an otherworldliness that lends itself to contemplation and reflection. Tere’s a silence and powerful aura about the sea and hills in some areas of Southern Sweden; a Christian-Celtic term for it is ‘thin places’, where the space between earth and heaven dissolves — a halfway house, a bridge. Malmo, though, keeps me alert. Stockholm and
Gothenburg’s hip younger brother, it’s well suited to the go-getting detective Saga — a city on the move, emerging from economic hardship and into the sun. Sitting in Lilla Torg (‘Little Square’), I watch workers enjoying a fika (coffee break) in open-air cafes, browsing independent shops and dining in its restaurants. Te atmosphere is relaxed, yet buzzing. Restaurang Atmosfar (where characters from Te Bridge dine in the first series) is a cosy, elegant restaurant whose innovative sharing plates entice Swedes to stay a little longer. Salt & Brygga, on the harbour, with views of Oresund Bridge, was Sweden’s first Slow Food restaurant, and uses locally sourced, organic produce to create unfussy, flavoursome food. I move beyond the bikes, parks and smaller
bridges (26 around the canal in Malmo) of this green city to Santiago Calatrava’s 623ft-tall Turning Torso tower in Vastra Hamnen — a swivelled, corkscrew of beauty. A subverted piece of Brutalist architecture, it’s an incongruous landmark that
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From left: Oresund Bridge; Turning Torso, Vastra Hamnen; old town, Ystad
seems to defy the elements around it, as it twists upwards. Te shadows at work and light piercing through its intricate concrete and steel surface makes me think of the layers Te Bridge creator Hans Rosenfeldt is exploring beneath the shell of Scandinavian society — examining what he calls the ‘second story’, which connects people in today’s complex world.
WALLANDER COUNTRY Moving south east of Malmo, the landscape unfolds into blissful isolation; peaceful and remote villages under wide-open skies. An hour- and-a-half’s drive away on the southern coast, Ystad is the setting for crime drama Wallander: Faceless Killers (1991). Henning Mankell’s first novel about inspector Kurt Wallander, started a phenomenon that’s now developed into 12 books, with over 30 million copies sold worldwide. Tere’s even an app. In Ystad, most people I speak to have been
in a film, and those who haven’t have a brother, aunt or dog who has. A few of them are there when I stop for a pastry nearby at Fridolfs Konditori — Wallander’s favourite coffee stop. Te town’s former army barracks is now Ystad
Studios, a movie incubator; next door, at film museum Cineteket, fans can see how they
February 2015 ABTA Magazine 47
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