Young Elisabeth comes to Västlinge to meet her old relative, the vicar and and his young daughter. She is going to spend the Christmas there in peace and quiet but on Christmas Eve, the grocer is brutally murdered with an axe. Police inspector Christer Wijk comes to the small village to find the murderer. He soon discovers the puzzle of evidence that makes almost everybody a suspect.
Cinematography
Snow-blanketed village that breathes claustrophobia.
Acting
Nils Asther's vicar: suspiciously serene or serenely suspicious?
Director
Arne Mattsson
Karl-Arne Holmsten
Christer Wijk
Nils Asther
Vicar Tord Ekstedt
Birgitta Pettersson
Elisabeth Rydén
George Fant
Arne Sandell
Elsa Prawitz
Barbara Sandell
Adolf Jahr
Connie Lundgren
Mimi Nelson
Hjördis Holm
Sif Ruud
Frideborg Jansson
Hjördis Petterson
Tekla Motander
Bengt Brunskog
Mårten Gustavsson
Sigge Fürst
Docent Ahlgren
Maritta Marke
Alice Broman
John Melin
Cantor
Björn Gustafson
Forensic investigator
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of Sweden's early 'Christer Wijk' detective series that helped establish Nordic noir decades before The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Director Arne Mattsson later called this his 'forgotten child'—overshadowed by his hit One Summer of Happiness, which had considerably more nudity and beach.
SE
