The Swedish version of The Return of the Dancing Master (Danslärarens återkomst) starring Jonas Karlsson as Stefan Lindman was released to DVD in May in PAL, Region 2 format. This is the second film to have been made from Mankell's novel, following the earlier entry from Austria's Lisa Films. On a side note, although Lisa Films' adaptation was filmed in English, plans to make it available in any other language besides overdubbed German seem to have stalled.

Next up is the first film in the new Wallander series: Before the Frost (Innan Frosten) starring Krister Henriksson and Johanna Sällström as Kurt Wallander and Linda Wallander, respectively. Released today (June 15), this DVD is PAL, Region 2 format and features English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish subtitles to complement the Swedish dialog.

   
click on the images for a larger version

You can view samples of the films on the internet by watching The Return of the Dancing Master trailer and the Before the Frost trailer.

At least two additional films from the Linda & Kurt Wallander series are due this year on DVD. Byfånen (The Village Idiot *) is expected August 3 and Bröderna (Brothers *) is set for September 7. These are totally new works developed by Henning Mankell specially for film. In these, Mankell has conceived of the plot for the stories and other writers have written the scripts.

As usual, to purchase these DVDs, you will need to order from one of the online Swedish retailers. We recommend DVD.se for people outside of Europe and DiscShop.se for those in the EU. Those stores are in the Swedish language and all prices are denominated in Swedish Kronor (SEK). For help navigating the DVD.se site, please see the instructions I posted last year.

Links:

• The Return of the Dancing Master at DVD.se, DiscShop.se, IMDB and video trailer
• Before the Frost at DVD.se, DiscShop.se, IMDB and video trailer
• Byfånen (The Village Idiot *) at DVD.se and DiscShop.se
• Bröderna (Brothers *) at DVD.se and DiscShop.se

(*) Unofficial English title