Kennedy's Brain, a Mini-Series Adapted from Henning Mankell's Crime Thriller, New This Week on DVD

The German mini-series Kennedy's Brain, based on a stand-alone thriller by Swedish crime novelist Henning Mankell, is being released this week on DVD.

Globe-trotting archeologist Louise Cantor (played by Iris Berben) returns home to Sweden and finds her 27-year-old son Henrik dead in his apartment. The police are ready to write it off as a suicide but Louise is used to piecing together a full story from incomplete shards of evidence, and is convinced that he was murdered. Reconciling with her ex-husband Aron (Christophe Malavoy) over the tragedy, the two embark on a dangerous search for answers.

In Gothenburg, Louise learns Henrik had been working on an article about a major scandal in Africa. Traveling to Cape Town, Louise and Aron discover Henrik may have been leading a dangerous double life. In Mozambique, Louise meets Henrik's ex-girlfriend and makes contact with a Swedish diplomat who has useful information. Eventually, Louises harrowing journey takes her to a clinic outside the capital and ultimately brings her face-to-face with her son's killers, who are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to keep their secrets safe from the outside world.

This 3-hour mini-series is in German with English subtitles. Learn more about the book from which it was adapted, below.

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Kennedy's Brain
Henning Mankell
A Crime Thriller

Archaeologist Louise Cantor returns home to Sweden and makes a devastating discovery: her only child, twenty-eight-year-old Henrik, dead in his bed. The police rule his death a suicide but she knows he was murdered.

Her quest to find out what really happened to Henrik takes her across the globe to Barcelona, where her son kept a secret apartment; Sydney, Australia, to find Aron, her estranged ex-husband and Henrik's father; and to Maputo, Mozambique, where she learns the awful truth behind an AIDS hospice. Her investigation reveals how much her son concealed from her as she uncovers the links between his death, the African AIDS epidemic, and Western pharmaceutical interests, while those who dare help her are killed off.