The Promised Land

Based on a true story, this Danish story of courtly intrigue and male ego re-teams Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, The Hunt) with director Nikolaj Arcel following A Royal Affair. After a glittering military career, Ludvig Kahlen (Mikkelsen) makes a bet with the king: if he can settle the sandy soil of Denmark’s Jutland, he will gain an aristocratic title. However, when capricious neighbouring gentry Federik De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg) claims the land is his and goes to extreme lengths to defend it, Kahlen finds himself tested in the extreme.

With Mads Mikkelsen’s usual poise and depth pairing with beautiful and rugged Danish scenery, this is an historical epic with a very human centre. Focusing for once on the struggle of the common man in a battle against his overlords, this has more than the hint of the Western and enough intrigue to spare.