Arctic Circle - The Invisible Death - DVD

Movie: In icy Lapland, police officer Nina Kautsalo (Iina Kuustonen) and her colleague find the badly battered Russian prostitute Evgenya in a remote cabin. When two dead women are found a short time later near the Russian border, it seems to be a clear case of human trafficking. But then things take an unexpected turn when a virus is found in Evgenya's blood, causing miscarriages, deformities and ultimately death. German virologist Dr. Thomas Lorenz (Maximilian Brückner) is sent to Ivalo to investigate the virus and prevent it from spreading. Nina is to assist him in his investigations. In the process, they face not only a possible pandemic, but also a dangerous opponent who can only be defeated if they leave the usual paths of investigation.

It becomes clear right from the first minutes of the first episode where the strength of Arctic Circle - The Invisible Death lies: in the fascinatingly beautiful, but at the same time threatening atmosphere of the great landscape shots captured in the Finnish part of Lapland. The basic mood, which is already built up visually here, is intensified by the coincidental topicality of the story. The plot is a bit overloaded here and there, but is overall excitingly told and especially very well played by the two main actors.

Where the series dramaturgically particularly weakens is the way in which the private lives of the two main characters are integrated into the story. Especially in Nina's case it seems too forced, as she is personally affected by the investigation twice. First, because her sister is tested positive for the virus right at the beginning and later, because her ex-husband also seems to be involved in the case. For Thomas, on the other hand, things get personal when his wife shows up in Ivalo and subsequently files for divorce believing he is cheating on her with Nina. And suddenly the virologist not only has to save the world from a pandemic, but also fight for custody of his daughter. It's all a bit too much of a good thing.

Despite this, even though there are too many subplots and arguably stereotypically drawn supporting characters, Arctic Circle - The Invisible Death manages to keep the suspense going almost to the end. The resolution isn't very original, but at least it can surprise a little bit. Overall, this mini-series is entertaining, visually engaging and well acted. The dramaturgical weaknesses keep getting in the way of the suspense, but the positive aspects are strong enough so that in the end it's enough for a conciliatory worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The fascinating snowy landscape of Lapland makes up most of the setting, even though the action also takes place in other places like Helsinki and Amsterdam. The landscape shots come across very nicely on the DVD. Image sharpness, depth of field, and coloring leave a positive overall impression. The sharpness of detail, on the other hand, reveals minor weaknesses here and there, but they never really become noticeable in a negative way. The sound is available as a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which makes the powerfully mixed dialogue, but also the ambient sounds and a few good sound effects harmoniously coordinated sound from the home theater boxes. Good!

Extras: Bonus material has the DVD box unfortunately not to offer.

Conclusion: Arctic Circle - The Invisible Death is a thoroughly exciting mini-series, which has received a very topical explosiveness by the Corona pandemic. However, some plot lines are too contrived and especially the secondary characters remain too pale to really inspire over 10 episodes. Atmospheric landscape shots and the good leading actor duo Iina Kuustonen and Maximilian Brückner at least make up for some of the weaknesses. The DVD offers the ten episodes in good picture and sound quality, unfortunately there is no bonus material. All in all, this is enough for a decent: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp