Scandinavian thrillers are all the rage these days, with The Killing and Wallander on TV and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo everywhere else grabbing the attention of the chattering classes, so it’s surprising that this Zentropa production has slipped by almost unnoticed, with a minimal theatrical release quickly leading to this DVD edition. Because it’s not a bad film – a little contrived perhaps, but certainly an effective and fast-paced thriller.

Tuva Novotny plays the lead (and almost title) character Ida, who we first meet waking up in a river in France, a cut on her forehead, stitched up scar on her stomach and holding a bag that contains two million Euros, a gun and a drawing of a man. Unable to remember who she is or how she came to be in this situation, she books into a hotel and begins – through a serious of not-entirely convincing coincidences – to piece her life together: she’s Danish, married to a famous opera singer (Flemming Enevold) and has family connections to violent left-wing revolutionary groups. As she slowly pieces together her past, she’s also being hunted down by a sinister group who want the money and will stop at nothing to get it. But it turns out that she is in more danger from people closer to home…

A twisting, turning thriller. ID:A is a pretty satisfying, if insubstantial experience. Director Christian E. Christiansen directs with a sure hand, mixing slick visuals with moments of intense violence and frenetic action, and Novotny is suitably traumatised by events as they are revealed – she’s not the tough heroine of many modern crime thrillers, but more a victim who acts as the anchor for the events of the story – a story that ultimately, she is only a small part of.

The back-story comes in one lengthy flashback about two thirds of the way into the film, and reveals that no one is quite who they seem to be. Things do get a little messy here – it stops being Ida’s story as a bunch of new characters are introduced. But it holds together for a violent and satisfactory conclusion, and although the film riddled with plot holes, none of them are enough to derail the story.

No masterpiece then, but ID:A is an entertaining modern take on film noir that should satisfy fans of crime movies, be they long term enthusiasts or BBC4 viewers fixated on Sarah Lund.

DAVID FLINT

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