Classic epic of a renegade settler in 18th century Denmark who makes the land grow in spite of everyone’s lack of faith in him. The masterful sweep of the pioneer Danish on the heath, the interactions of the stoic outsider and his aristocratic neighbors and how he creates a family against all odds, classic in style and subject: It delivers 100%.
Promised Land is an epic Nordic saga which creates a seamless archetypical story of struggle and triumph. And in classic western style, the hero rides off into the sunset; only this time, he is not alone.
Its original language title is The Bastard, and the outsiders of the society are those born out of wedlock from masters raping their servants who are essentially slaves. Mads Mikelson embodies a Danish John Wayne archetype in this western saga about the bastard son of a noble who has served heroically in the Seven Years War and returns to claim his due.
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 honor himself. He quickly makes an enemy with the merciless landowner, Frederik De Schinkel, who is sole ruler of the area and believes that the heath belongs to him and not the king. When De Schinkel’s serf runs away with Ann Barbara played by Amanda Collin (Remember her name!) his wife and a housemaid who had been raped and exploited by Schinkel and seeks refuge with Kahlen, Schinkel 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 risks his life and the bond with the small, troubled family that has arisen around him on the heath.
Kahlen becomes the champion of the same stock of people who later emigrated and worked the farmlands of the plains and prairies in America (Pure Edna Farber material, although in her prize-winning novel and movie So Big, the immigrant farmers were Dutch), but here the people are working the heath, long considered unsustainable as an agricultural endeavor, but remaining a wish of the King to cultivate.
I love Nordic sagas, like War Sailor last year, like Kristen Lavransdotter which I read as a girl. I also love the composer Leroy Anderssen and the early TV series, I Remember Mama that ran from 1949 to 1957, and all the stories by Hans Christian Anderson. I loved the little Danish community of Solvang in California when I was a girl and the blue and white tableware I bought when I first moved into my own apartment in college. I loved my first visit to Europe and visiting Denmark and Tivoli Gardens where I lost my sweater and someone turned it in; the people looked like angels and were honest.
The only issue I have is with the title of this and of another film called The Settlers, both of which were playing in Toronto where I caught them. Together, they sound like two films about Israel, but neither has the least connection to that land, so don’t get confused when you see their titles in your theaters and streaming platforms. Think Denmark and Chile!
The Zentropa-produced drama premiered in Competition at the Biennale di Venezia 2023, one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious festivals before going to Toronto International Film Festival.
This is Denmark’s 61st submission. Denmark has been nominated 14 times with 4 wins (Pelle the Conquerer in 1987, Babette’s Feast in 1988, In a Better World in 2010 and Another Round, which also starred Mikkelsen, in 2020).
Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair (which also starred Mikkelsen) was nominated in 2012. This is the first time since A Royal Affair that the critically acclaimed director is directing a Danish feature and reuniting with the talented Mads Mikkelsen.
Written by Arcel and Danish screenwriter and director Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice, 2020), based on the 2020 Danish bestseller ‘Kaptajnen og Ann Barbara’ (translated ‘The Captain and Ann Barbara’), it is produced by Louise Vesth (The Kingdom Exodus, 2022; A Royal Affair, 2012 and Melancholia, 2011) for Zentropa Entertainments.
Estimated to be one of Zentropa’s biggest feature films in years, with a budget of EUR 8M, the feature has already received massive attention in Denmark, within the industry and has already sold more than 50 territories, including: U.S. (Magnolia Pictures), Canada (Mongrel Media), Germany (Plaion), France (The Jokers Films), Poland (Best Film), Spain (Divisa Red) and many more, underlining the immense attention that the film has received worldwide.
A Danish-Swedish-German Coproduction
Produced by Zentropa Entertainments ApS in co-production with Zentropa Berlin GmbH, Zentropa Sweden AB in cooperation with TV2 Denmark, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, SVT, PLAION PICTURES in co-production with Film i Väst with support from Danish Film Institute Markedsordningen, Eurimages, Den Vestdanske Filmpulje, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Czech Film Fund and Swedish Film Institute. Developed by the Creative Europe Media Programme — Media of the European Union. Domestics distribution through Nordisk Film. International sales handled by TrustNordisk.
The Promised Land was released widely in Denmark on 5 October 2023.
Magnolia Pictures will release The Promised Land in U.S. theaters on February 2, 2024.
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