After watching the six episodes of the Norwegian series Gangers of Oslo, several conclusions emerge. Firstly, no matter how socially and economically developed a country may be, it is not free from organized crime: development and mafia, underdevelopment and mafia, poverty and mafia, the underworld as a social constant since the beginning of time.
Secondly, it is still strange that all the criminals in the series are Pakistani immigrants, even though Moaz Ibrahim, the main cop pursuing them, is also of that origin. And thirdly, point out the tireless desire of Ole Endresen, its creator, screenwriter and director, or that of the platform Netflix, which shows it, so that viewers can learn Norwegian and thus understand the numerous text messages exchanged between police and police criminals and they don’t like to translate. This desire to promote cosmopolitanism is moving.
Conclusions aside, the truth is that “Gangsters of Oslo” is an entertaining series that distances itself from the very numerous criminal acts through a twist in the script: the police officer who pursues the gangsters has an equally criminal past, which is based on a friendship with which he now pursues, a past that he must hide from his colleagues, his girlfriend and his boss, something that should not be complicated for a hieratic character who is economical with words and gestures.
For those who spent part of their distant youth in film clubs, watching a series in which a thief becomes a policeman who hunts thieves is reminiscent of The Watered Irrigator by the Lumière brothers. And for Wikipedia fans, a fact: the film is from 1895. Nothing new under the sun.
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