After many years Julia (Lena Endra) returns to her town of birth. She has to go there to sell the house of her parents as her father is now in a nursing home. She reluctantly goes there because of events which happened in the past. Her little son Jens suddenly disappeared on a grey day in September of 1973. A lot was done to find him, without any result. It is something she is struggling with that huge loss. It is not only hard for her as her father is struggling too because the boy was staying with him at the moment. Together with a friend they never stopped searching for him. When suddenly a clue is received which could shed a light on his disappearance Julia decides to stay in the town. Together with her father she decides to investigate.
The movie opens with a couple of scenes set during the second world war where a man, without reason, seems to murder a couple of people while he is on the run. It is a dark page in the history of the town and which has left its mark on the people. They still speculate about what happened to the man. As the movie progresses the connections with the disappearance of the boy become clear.
This Swedish film looks bleak and grey en seems to mirror the feelings Julia struggles with. The hope she had seems to have disappeared and her life is far from what it used to be. Lena Endre manages to show those feelings through her acting, her character really has a broken soul.
Echoes from the Dead is a mysterious drama in which the puzzle pieces slowly start to connect. Unfortunately some of the events are a bit too coincidental to be realistic (Julia’s father almost seems to change into Columbo). It does manage to keep the viewer interested as you do want to know what happened to Jens and who was responsible. The journey has its tense moments, but does not succeed in keep the viewer constantly glued to the screen.
