ALFF Encore: The Promised Land

This screening took place on Monday, February 26, 2024 at 8:15 pmYukon Arts Centre

Mads Mikkelsen cuts a formidable figure in this enthralling period drama. A brutal, bloody, and complex story of savagery and ambition, this epic Danish historical drama is styled like an old fashioned American Western. Audience top ten for ALFF 2024.

In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) – a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero – sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. He seeks to start farming crops, build a colony in the name of the King, and gain a noble title for himself. This beautiful but forbidding area also happens to be under the rule of the merciless Frederik De Schinkel, a preening nobleman who understands the threat that Kahlen poses to his power. Struggling against the elements and local brigands, Kahlen is joined by a couple who have fled the clutches of the rapacious De Schinkel. As this group of misfits begins to build a small community in this inhospitable place, De Schinkel swears vengeance, and the confrontation between him and Kahlen promises to be as violent and intense as the two men themselves.

In Danish with English subtitles.

Content advisory: Violence, mature themes, coarse language, depictions of racism, and sexually suggestive scenes.

Genre: Period drama.