The Absent One

Set in Denmark, this crime thriller follows Detective Carl Mørck and his partner Assad, who work on cold cases for Department Q of the Copenhagen police. Twenty years after twin siblings were found murdered at a summer cottage, a former officer asks Mørck to look into the case. A local man confessed and was convicted at the time, but the two investigators come to suspect that the original resolution was deeply flawed.

The Absent One is the second film adapted from Jussi Adler-Olsen's novels about Department Q, following The Keeper of Lost Causes. Mikkel Nørgaard returned as director, working from a screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg and Adler-Olsen himself. Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares lead the cast as Mørck and Assad, alongside Pilou Asbæk, David Dencik and Danica Ćurčić. The production brought together companies from Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden and cost around 5 million dollars.

Released in October 2014, the film drew a worldwide box office of roughly 12 million dollars. It holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb from about 29,000 votes and 7 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 12 reviews places professional assessments slightly below the general audience response. With 46 credited cast members and 50 credited crew, the production was a substantial Scandinavian genre effort.