Hanna Svensson - Blood Ties - Blu-ray

Movie: Hanna Svensson (Marie Richardson) is a police officer with heart and soul. Her high sense of morality on the job even leads her to put her own son Christian (Adam Pålsson) in jail for drug trafficking. Two years later, Hanna, demoted to the white-collar crime squad, faces the imminent end of her career and must also come to terms with the fact that Christian, just released from prison, wants no contact with her. But when Hanna's secret lover Sven (Johan Hedenberg) disappears without a trace, the policewoman brushes all private worries aside. Together with Sven's colleague Björn (Magnus Krepper), she sets out to find her lover and comes across his investigation into the Croatian mafia family Mimica, who also seem to be involved in a gang war between the rival rock gangs Mobsters and Delicuentos. The mysterious informant Inez provides the investigators with valuable clues. But Hanna has no idea that Inez is Christian, who has gained the trust of the Mimica family and who puts himself in mortal danger with every clue he passes on about their machinations.

Hanna Svensson - Blood Ties is a special crime series for several reasons. First, there's the main character: an investigator who is at the end of her career, not a smooth heroine, but a woman whose moral standards have put her on the sidelines, both professionally and familially. Then there's the family history - nothing unusual for a crime series. But here it gets a special twist that tightens the suspense screw on several levels. And then there's the multi-plot story, which is told at a rather leisurely pace, but still manages to captivate from the first second to the last.

This is achieved by the makers building up a basic atmosphere that believably conveys that the protagonists - no matter which side they're on - are in constant danger. In danger of getting caught, losing something or even getting killed. Moreover, the gangsters are drawn in a pleasantly complex way, which leads to the fact that not only the investigators are very interesting characters. No matter which plot line is shown from which perspective, as a viewer you always fever with.

Admittedly, there are some moments in which the actions of individual characters seems somewhat contrived. There it can happen that the story loses a little credibility and traction. But in the end the few weak moments only have a marginal effect on the extremely positive overall impression. Hanna Svensson - Blutsbande offers really good crime thriller entertainment with many interesting characters and some really good moments of suspense, through which one remains captivated for almost ten hours despite some small lengths. For this there is clearly one: Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: There is nothing to complain about the mixing of image and sound. The visuals are pleasing with an atmospheric color scheme and good overall sharpness for a TV production. There are also no notable weaknesses to be found in the detail presentation and the mixing of the contrasts. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is largely dominated by the dialogue and accordingly remains unspectacular. At a few moments, however, minor sound effects or even the music make it clear that the surround channels are also being used to weave an atmospheric crime thriller soundscape. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, the Blu-ray has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: Hanna Svensson - Blutsbande is a thrilling crime series that not only comes up with an interesting and pleasantly multi-layered main character. The ten-part series also takes its time to develop the individual characters and their stories and bring them together into a gripping whole. While this doesn't always have pace, it never really gets boring in the process. Even though the double Blu-ray has no extras to offer besides the ten episodes, the set is clearly: absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp