By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Hans Petter Moland
Starring: Amanda Colin | Fares Fares’ | Jacob Lohmann | Jakob Oftebro | Johanne Louise Schmidt | Nikolaj Lie Kaas | Pål Sverre Hagen | Signe Anastassia Mannov
Original language title: Flaskepost fra P
Country: denmark, germany, norway, sweden
Year: 2016
Running time: 112
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4088268/reference
Kyle says: “A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH is chronologically the third in an eerie and compelling series of popular Danish detective thrillers, all three of which were released in 2016 by Netflix. The title is ironic, as the people involved in the conspiracy are ultimately faithless, even though they are nominally Jehovah’s Witnesses. Commencing with an eight-year-old message in a bottle, one of the oldest but ever reliable narrative tropes, this unnerving chapter of seemingly burned-out detectives, consigned to working on unsolved cases in the police department basement, progresses from that message into a horrifying tale of parents strangely lacking in emotion for their missing children exploited and worse by a minister more akin to serial killer than man of the cloth. That such a horrifying story comes from Denmark, typically regarded as a model of contemporary probity, is due in part to the performance of brilliant Norwegian actor Pål Sverre Hagen as Johannes, in part to excellent direction by Hans Petter Moland, but most of all to an outstanding adaptation by Nikolaj Arcel, who also wrote the screenplay for Denmark’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.