The white lioness

The White Lioness (Swedish: Den vita lejoninnan ) is the title of a Swedish crime novel by Henning Mankell , published in 1993 , as the third episode in the crime series about Swedish detective Kurt Wallander after Faceless Murderers and Dogs from Riga .

In 1996, directed by Per Berglund, a film adaptation of "The White Lioness" ( Den Vita lejoninnan ), financed by Sweden, Denmark and Norway, with Rolf Lassgård in the role of Kurt Wallander, followed.

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After a historical prologue in South Africa (founding of the Afrikaner Broederbond in 1918, introduction of apartheid ), the actual plot begins, which takes place in the spring of 1992: A real estate agent disappears from Ystad and, after a long search, is found shot by the police in a well outside of Ystad. Commissioner Kurt Wallander's investigations in the area of ​​the free church committed woman reveal no evidence of the perpetrator. When a house in the neighborhood explodes during a crime scene inspection, the forensic technicians find the remains of a Russian radio system, a pistol and a severed finger of a black man.

In parallel to this plot, the reader learns in another storyline, to which is occasionally switched, that the finger belongs to the South African Victor Mabasha, who has been hired by a cell of the South African secret service to shoot a prominent, but not yet named, South African personality so that the country sinks into civil war and the old elites can reintroduce the apartheid system. To this end, Jan Kleyn, the initiator of the conspiracy, sends Mabasha to Sweden to train there in an abandoned homestead under the guidance of the brutal former KGB agent Konovalenko for the assassination attempt. When Mabasha can no longer endure the bad and degrading treatment by Konovalenko, who also shot the Swedish real estate agent who unexpectedly appeared on the farm and wants to take revenge on him, the latter cuts off his finger in the fight. But Mabasha can knock Konovalenko down and leaves the house believing that Konovalenko is dead. However, the Russian survived, blew up the house and went in search of the South African in order to kill him. Mabasha, who knows who Wallander is, seeks refuge with him in order to escape Konovalenko. At the same time Jan Kleyn sends a new killer, Sikosi Tsiki, to Sweden to be trained by Konovalenko.

Another storyline is the investigation of the South African public prosecutor Scheepers, who reports personally to President de Klerk . Although it is initially suspected that the president himself is the target of the attack, it soon becomes clear that Mandela is to be killed. A crisis breaks out in Sweden when Konovalenko kidnaps Mabasha from Wallander's apartment and murdered him at a military training area. Wallander's daughter Linda, who was later abducted as well, escapes. Wallander, who followed Konovalenko to the military training area, shot his accomplices in pursuit of the Russian in self-defense, which is why he makes serious allegations. After a car chase, Konovalenko crashes into a concrete pillar and burns alive. Wallander, who was severely affected by the events - especially the death of various people and the threat to his daughter - was put on sick leave by the doctor because of depression. Before doing this, he can still arrange for a decisive message to be sent to South Africa via Interpol . There Scheepers was able to thwart the assassination attempt on Mandela at the very last minute.

Background and characterization

In the epilogue for the narrative thread in South Africa, Mankell refers to the exploratory book Broederbond , published in 1979 . The Most Powerful Secret Society in the World by Ivor Wilkins and Hans Strydom, on texts by Graham Leach on the culture of the Boers and on stories by Thomas Mofolo .

While the first two episodes of the Kurt Wallander series are told in a linear fashion, “The White Lioness” has a more complex narrative structure: the story is divided into two narrative strands with flashbacks. As a result, the reader knows more than Kurt Wallander, the investigating protagonist. In three short passages in the chapters “The Man from Transkei” and “A Flock of Sheep in Fog” the personal narrative situation is abandoned and Mabasha (twice) and Wallander become the first-person narrator.

filming

In 1995 the novel was filmed in Sweden as a TV thriller , the lead role took over for the third time after Murderer Without a Face and Dogs by Riga actor Rolf Lassgård , again directed by Pelle Berglund. The German version was dubbed by NDR Studio Hamburg in 1997 and broadcast on ARD that same year .

The film sticks to the novel for a long time, with the exception of a few names and changes in the appearance of the characters, only the end was moved from South Africa to Oslo (Oslo City Hall ) on December 10, 1993 as part of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony . It is also the last film with the old cast of colleagues (Joakim Narin, Åke Jörnfalk, Frederic Täckström). Since this film was not dubbed by ZDF as usual , the well-known dubbing voices of the previous films are also missing.

On December 2, 2005, the DVD version of the film was released.

The BBC re-filmed the novel in 2014, this time with Kenneth Branagh in the lead role. The plot has changed in essential points and takes place throughout South Africa, where Kurt Wallander is staying at a police congress. The missing woman's husband is Swede, and Wallander, as a compatriot, is asked to have a few words of comfort with the man. Because the case interests him, he continues to investigate on his own.

Reviews

• “'The white lioness' is of rare quality.” - Reidar Johansson, Neues Deutschland
• “A captivating political thriller.” - NDR
• “What sets this novel apart from other works in the genre are the successful psychograms of the main characters. Mankell is particularly sympathetic: his detective Kurt Wallender always remains himself, a little troubled policeman, and does not mutate into a heroic know-it-all. ”- Hamburger Abendblatt
• "When Wallander was able to help a Nelson M." (Rating: 74%) - Krimi-Couch.de

Quote

• "I just don't believe that there are such flawless and harmonious people."

Web links

• www.wallander-web.de (Kommissar-Wallander-Fan-Homepage) with a summary, reference to films, radio play adaptations etc.