Klangor begins with the police pulling a body out of a harbour. Around them, bystanders take photos and gossip among themselves. Elsewhere, Rafal (Arkadiusz Jakubik) and his wife Magda (Maja Ostaszewska) are frantically driving – too frantically, as suddenly they skid towards the rear end of a truck. This is, in part, a series about the fragile nature of family; the opening leaves you wondering if this family is going to survive past the opening credits.
Rafal lives in two worlds. At work, he’s surrounded by the worst of the worst as a psychologist in one of Poland’s grimmer prisons, dealing with violent criminals, perverted criminals, and in the case of Emil Knapik (Konrad Eleryk), possibly a bit of both.
Rafal is clearly a decent, empathic man who cares about those in his charge, but that doesn’t make him a soft touch. When Emil – who murdered his wife and daughter years ago in a psychotic episode – requests a transfer because he can’t stand his cellmates, Rafal says no… but he feels bad about it. (He feels even worse when Emil solves his room-mate issue in a very bloody fashion.)
Emil Knapik (Konrad Eleryk) in ‘Klangor’. Source: Robert Palka
At home he’s a doting father, taking care of his two teenage daughters Hania (Katarzyna Gałązka) and Gabi (Matylda Giegżno) while their mother works hundreds of kilometres away in Germany as a carer. It’s a tough situation, made worse by the seething dislike the sisters – one bookish, the other a party girl – have for each other. No matter how competent Rafal might be around the house (disentangling dirty clothes before putting them in the wash is his speciality), there are some problems a father can’t solve.
Thanks to his job, he’s used to getting grim phone calls. But while visiting his wife in Germany, he gets one he never expected. He left their daughters behind in Poland, and now Gabi is missing after a night out with her secret boyfriend Ariel (Maciej Musial). When Ariel is found dead, the police assume they’re dealing with a murder-suicide.
Gabi (Matylda Giegżno). Source: Robert Palka
Rafal isn’t willing to accept that. He knows – or thinks he knows – Gabi better than that. There might be secrets in his house (for starters, Hania seems to know more than she’s saying) but he’s convinced she’s still somewhere out there, and this obsession starts to consume what’s left of his life. Having Gabi’s disappearance handled by Danka Schulze (Magdalena Czerwińska), an investigator from the local criminal department who’s also his ex, makes things even more tricky.
Klangor (the title refers to the sound made by cranes as the birds announce the approach of spring) is far from your typical tale of a father out for vengeance. This is a series full of shades of grey, and not just visually – though Rafal’s bright yellow jacket always makes him stand out against a very chilly landscape. It’s not quite up there with Nordic Noir levels of ice and snow, but this is a series that’ll definitely make you want to rug up.
Across the eight episodes Rafal is forced to suppress everything good in himself to uncover the truth about his daughter’s disappearance. He’ll do what it takes to bring his daughter home, even if his actions mean the home – and the father – he brings her back to will be changed forever. For some action heroes, it’s another day at the office. For Rafal, who’s clearly a caring, sensitive man, this kind of thing just might tear him apart.
Rafal is desperate to find his daughter, Gabi, in ‘Klangor’. Source: Jaroslaw Sosinski
Klangor is as much a study of people under stress as it is a mystery, as almost everyone turns out to be struggling under pressures that bend them away from their best selves. For a family used to him being the glue that holds everything together, Rafal’s new mission isn’t just a risk to himself. It threatens to shatter what little connection remains between them all.
To be fair, Rafal has good reason to think there might be more to Gabi’s disappearance than teen angst gone wrong. For one, Emil escaped from prison right before Rafal’s weekend with his wife. His target seems to be Piotrek Ryszka (Wojciech Mecwaldowski), a prison officer and one of Rafal’s work friends. But could this psychotic killer also have had Rafal – and members of his family – in his sights? And does Piotrek have family secrets of his own?
The more Rafal searches for answers, the more he realises that he lives in a very small world. And every step brings him closer to the edge.
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