Skyggespill - Season 1

On 9 April 1940, Norway is occupied by Hitler's Germany. In the weeks that follow, there are several skirmishes between the occupying power and Norwegian forces. One of the drivers on the Norwegian side is called Henry Oliver Rinnan. Quite quickly, Rinnan finds out that he sympathizes with the German armed forces, and already in June 1940 he reports to German service as a secret agent. Rinnan will prove to be one of the most effective defectors during the war. How was that possible?

The U-boat war over the Atlantic is in full swing, and Trondheim Harbor takes on great importance. The convoy service to Murmansk is also to be stopped. Henry Rinnan goes with the Gestapo and three new employees to Ålesund, or little London, as the city is called. They must stop the flight by ice skates to England.

Beyond the world war, the fronts in Norway are also sharpened. In Trondheim, the Germans strengthen their apparatus to crush any resistance. One of the tools is the "Sonderabteilung Lola" - the Rinnanbanden. Henry Rinnan had over fifty active members in his horrible gang and was very effective from Sunnmøre and northwards.

Roll-up of communist groups in Trondheim turns Henry Rinnan into an independent torturer. He gets his gang monastery where he parties, tortures and shoots. Infiltration is his trademark, raids and arrests the results. Resistance in the Trøndelag districts is paralyzed. Several make unsuccessful assassination attempts against Rinnan. One of the most grotesque examples of the use of torture and murder takes place in Vikna.

The war is over and the court settlement is at the door. The case against the Rinnan gang is attracting attention beyond the country's borders. The most brutal of the gang's members receive the death penalty. But before that, strange things have happened: On Christmas Eve 1945, Henry Rinnan escapes from the Mission Hotel - and who helps him?