The Promised Land (MA 15+)

Oscars – Official Submission (Denmark) 2024 Best International Feature.

Ludvig Kahlen arrives in 1755 on the barren Jutland heath with a single goal: to follow the king's call to cultivate the land and thereby achieve wealth and honour himself. But Kahlen quickly makes an enemy. The merciless landowner, Frederik De Schinkel, who is sole ruler of the area, believes that the heath belongs to him and not the king. When De Schinkel's serf runs away with his wife Ann Barbara and seeks refuge with Kahlen, the landowner does everything to drive Kahlen away and at the same time exact a cruel revenge. Kahlen does not bow, but stubbornly takes up the unequal battle and now risks both his life, but also the bond with the small, troubled family that has arisen around him on the heath.

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Gustav Lindh, Amanda Collin

Director: Nikolaj Arcel

★★★★½ "an exhilarating experience" FLICKERING MYTH

★★★★ "[a] gripping Danish western" ARTS DESK

★★★★ "Mads Mikkelsen is a dour delight in this gritty ‘Hygge Western’" DAILY TELEGRAPH UK

★★★★ "a gripping man-versus-wilderness survival story with unmistakable political undertones, but it’s also nimble enough to allow romance to blossom under its slate-grey skies" TIME OUT

"An invigoratingly savage Nordic western, The Promised Land is earthy, enjoyable stuff: an expansive, sweeping epic with hope in its heart and dirt under its nails." SCREEN INTERNATIONAL