This week, Copenhagen-based outfit TrustNordisk boarded world sales on Christoffer Boe’s latest endeavour, a crime drama titled Rejseholdet – det første mord, whose international title remains undisclosed.
According to the Danish sales agent’s official press release, the film promises to be "a thrilling and entertaining crime story set between luxury and lawlessness in the 1920s, depicting the formation of the Police's mobile investigation unit, rarely portrayed in Danish cinema." It is based on Jacob Jonia’s 2023 novel Den yderste grænse (The Outer Limit), and penned by Boe himself with Lasse Kyed Rasmussen.
The project is now filming in Poland, with additional scenes planned to be shot in Denmark.
Boe, known for his distinctive, often surreal storytelling style, debuted with Reconstruction in 2003. His subsequent films – Allegro, Offscreen, Everything Will Be Fine and Beast – all premiered at major festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Sundance and SXSW. More recently, Boe directed the crime thriller The Purity of Vengeance [+] (2018), a part of the popular Department Q franchise, which sold over 760,000 tickets nationwide, and the Nikolaj Coster-Waldau-led drama A Taste of Hunger (2021).
Rejseholdet – det første mord is set in Denmark in 1927. In detail, we follow ambitious police officer Otto Himmelstrup (Alex Høgh Andersen), who leads the newly formed Travel Squad, which is tasked with assisting local police in solving particularly difficult crimes. When a body is found in a burnt-out summer house in Esbjerg, Otto and his team begin to unravel an unusual murder mystery, revealing power struggles and corruption among the city’s elite. The closer the Travel Squad gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes – and soon Otto is not only battling powerful enemies but also confronting his own dark side to get to the bottom of the case.
In the lead female role starring as detective Camilla is Mathilde Arcel (Agent, Darkland, The Killing). The cast is rounded off by Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt portraying the quick-witted local newspaper reporter Nete Schwartz, Lars Ranthe, Nikolaj Kopernikus, Ask Be and Kathrine Greis-Rosenthal, among others.
"Let me be honest – I love crime stories! At their best, they serve as a mirror to our dark contemporary world, in a captivating and manipulative game that we love to be seduced by. There is a fundamentally thrilling story waiting to be told about the founding of this special crime investigation unit and how they became Denmark's answer to the FBI, achieving almost mythical status among many Danes," says Boe.
"And at the heart of it all is, of course, our main character – Otto Himmelstrup. A fascinating and complex figure, who struggles with the pain of the past in a desperate attempt to prevent future atrocities. He will catch the guilty – and in the process, we get a close look at the creation of modern criminal investigation. In that sense, we find ourselves at the very beginning – the primordial soup from which everything we know so well has emerged," he continues.
The picture is produced by Thomas Heinesen for Nordisk Film Production, with backing from the Danish Film Institute, and made in collaboration with Lava Films, the Polish Film Institute and TV2 Denmark. Nordisk Film is in charge of its local distribution, with a release slated for 4 September 2025.
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