It’s a hard job being a top cop. You’re meant to lock away your feelings and look at things logically, even when those “things” include gruesome murders. But your feelings are also an essential tool, helping you understand the motivations and urges that could have led to such a horrible act. It’s a tough line to walk, and for Italian detective Teresa Battaglia (Elena Sofia Ricci), it’s about to get a lot tougher.
We first see her dancing around her house, singing along to a soaring track. Halfway through, she pauses to give herself a blood test. The results, going by her expression, aren’t what she was hoping for – but the music (and her singing) continue. She’s someone who keeps her spirits up even when faced with bad news. She’s going to need that positivity.
A body’s been found in Travini, in the Italian Alps near the border with Austria. Roberto Valent was the designer of the local ski facilities. Clearly the killer wasn’t a fan, though that might be an understatement; the corpse was found stripped naked with his eyes gouged out.
Battaglia (Elena Sofia Ricci) at the crime scene. Credit: RAI
Battaglia is all business at the crime scene. As her partner of 20 years, Inspector Giacomo Parisi (Gianluca Gobbi) knows how she works, which means he spends most of his time soothing the ruffled feathers of the locals. At least he’s good at his job; the other member of her team, the youthful Massimo Marini (Giuseppe Spata) is new on the scene and doesn’t exactly impress anyone by arriving in a car that has to be towed in the mountainous conditions.
Marini does manage to do one thing right. He finds the victim’s clothing, hung up on a sinister-looking scarecrow dangling in the forest. His reward? A drive back to town with Battaglia, who isn’t exactly impressed with his insights into the crime scene… or anything else about him, including his “department store overcoat”. Her distain won’t stop him from trying to impress her, but he’s going to have to work a lot harder (and smarter) to get her respect.
Massimo Marini (Giuseppe Spata). Credit: RAI
As for those locals, they’re a lot more worried about the affect the murder will have on tourist season than finding the killer. At least they’ll still have some amazing mountain scenery to show any tourists who do turn up.
Much of the first episode is spent establishing just how tough and driven Battaglia is. She’s practically a human bulldozer in the early scenes, so when she shows a bit of human warmth towards Roberto Valent’s son, it’s hard not to wonder what her angle is. But no, turns out she’s just a mother who cares about other children. It’s the first real sign that there’s another side to her – and it’s a trait that seems to set her apart from most of the other adults in the area.
In between the scenes of Battaglia and her team investigating, we see a bunch of local kids hanging around the fringes of town. They’re mostly ignored by everyone else; their home lives, we soon see, can be pretty grim. Though not as grim as the mysterious hooded figure one of them saw out in the woods. But if the boy saw the killer (and the mysterious figure definitely looked like one), why did the killer let him live?
Some of the town's children have challenges of their own. Credit: RAI
The clues soon pile up, as do the bodies. There are links to the ski resort that’s currently under construction; the kids have their own troubles, as the local primary school turns out to be anything but a safe space. And there’s a lot going on in the woods, going back generations.
Complicating it all is Battaglia’s own issues. The rock-solid front she puts up is covering up a medical condition that’s slowly taking away the best crime-fighting tool she has: her mind.
Flowers Over The Inferno is based on a by Italian author Ilaria Tuti, and this first season (the second season is currently in post-production) takes its name and storyline from the first book in the series. It was Tuti’s debut novel, but became a best-seller.
Ricci brings Battaglia's challenges to life. Credit: RAI
Ricci does an excellent job of showing us the frailty and humanity behind Battaglia’s blunt exterior. At first, she seems yet another hard-boiled cop. Increasingly, that turns out to be an act designed to protect herself. As she gathers the pieces of the puzzle, her ability to hold them together in her mind starts to fade. Her control over her feelings starts to waver; the cracks in her professional façade grow wider.
She’s the only one who can solve the string of murders that threaten to tear apart the town; will she be able to bring the guilty to justice before it all slips away?
Flowers Over The Inferno is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Flowers Over The Inferno
