A 12-year-old Gypsy boy is on the run. The lad, named Marco, is the key to blowing the lid off a multinational corruption scandal revolving around government funds earmarked for development aid in Africa. Police inspector Carl Mørck (Ulrich Thomsen) and his loyal assistant Assad (Zaki Youssef) will find themselves involved in a turbulent race against time, and will have to deal with cynical, powerful ringleaders and a brutal gang, who are also on the hunt for Marco. This is the story of the new Department Q film, entitled The Marco Effect [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], penned by Anders August (Britt-Marie Was Here [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], A Fortunate Man [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Bille August
scheda film]) and newcomer Thomas Porsager. The script is based on Jussi Adler-Olsen’s 2012 crime book of the same name, the fifth instalment in the literary saga. 

The crime flick will be directed by Danish helmer Martin Zandvliet, best known for his successful features Applause [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Martin Pieter Zandvliet
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scheda film] (2011) and Land of Mine [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Louis Hofmann
intervista: Martin Zandvliet
scheda film] (2015). On this occasion, Zandvliet will once again team up with August and Nordisk Film producer Mikael Rieks (That Time of Year [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Elliott Crosset Hove
intervista: Ulaa Salim
scheda film]) will play the roles previously performed by actors Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares in the first four films in the Department Q crime series, produced by Zentropa. 

There are high expectations for this new production, as each chapter of the saga topped the national box office, and the most recent film in the series, Christoffer Boe's The Purity of Vengeance [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Elliott Crosset Hove
scheda film] (2018), became the highest-grossing Danish film ever. Given the huge potential of the saga, Nordisk Film confirmed its interest in producing six films featuring detective Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad. In this respect, producer Rieks said: “Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series has spellbound millions of readers across the world, and we are proud that he has put his trust in us at Nordisk Film in turning The Marco Effect into a high-quality thriller-drama with international scope.” 

Writer Adler-Olsen has lined up a total of ten books in the series. The best-selling author describes The Marco Effect as “an attempt to show how corruption and greed affect the Western world” and maintains that “the story is more relevant now than ever”.

The Marco Effect is being co-produced by Mikael Rieks for Copenhagen-based firm Nordisk Film and Peter Naderman (The Kindness of Strangers [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lone Scherfig
scheda film], The Invisible Guardian [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]) for Germany's Nadcon Film. Principal photography is set to start in January 2020, while the national premiere is scheduled for October 2020.