The Promised Land

Flawless, suffocating, absorbing and emotional. I love this Danish intimate filmmaking, and when a sound name in the director's chair (just look for yourself what this god has made), the brilliant, Oscar-winning Mads Mikkelsen and a well-played theme come together, it's a win-win. From the beginning, from the viewer's perspective, you just can't help but root for the main character's plan and wait to see where it all goes. As the characters arrive, each one iconic and fresh enough to garner further sympathy, we fill the screen with A-list characters, and once the main villain (read a sleazy, disgusting, twisted motherf*cker, the kind that hasn't been on screen in quite some time and who we'd probably all like to see dead right away) appears, things get progressively more intense. The story unfolds brilliantly, the characters and their fates equally so, and we're treated to historical drama, even brutal gore, and a few twists that turn the plot 180 degrees and shuffle the viewer's cards nicely. In the end, I'm completely satisfied and it's clear that the North is just somewhere else and can produce with grace an intimate historical gem that I would otherwise avoid by a mile, but here I simply can't help but give it a full score. (01/02/2024)

It really seems that the Jutland heathland represents something exceptional and inspiring for Ida Jessen, as she can easily situate the story there in the 18th and 20th centuries. The true story of Ludvig von Kalhene (1700-1774), of course, differs greatly from the fictional and subsequent film version, but this certainly doesn't disrupt the viewer's experience. Zentropa (with generous support from Czech craftsmen) released a pleasing film, with Mads Mikkelsen as its main asset, and his fight for survival. It is all wrapped in drama cut from Diana Gabaldon's novels, the villain is very negative, the nobility degenerated, and the common people wear their hearts on their sleeves. A Royal Affair was good, and this is also a very gratifying viewer experience. (01/19/2024)

A gritty low-budget historical drama that can hold its ground compared to its Western friends. A fine Mads Mikkelsen as a soft-spoken retired captain, a great villain escalating the pissed-offness of both the protagonist and the viewer, and a magical landscape of Danish moorland wilderness, very impressively shot by Rasmus Videbaek. I expected a tougher finale, but it somehow fell into a romantic template, but it was not a big deal and Bastard retained its toughness and dignity. (04/20/2024)

Like a spaghetti western from Denmark's bleak moors meets a romance novel while waiting for Godot (here in the form of a sprouting potato plant). A bad guy that is as charismatic and sleazy as life truths facing the main "I can't see the forest for the trees" good guy, who isn't such a guy after all. It's a straightforward, genre film, a bit long-winded around the middle, especially in the first half, nicely uncompromising, well acted and... And that's it. Which is far from little. (01/19/2024)

The Danish Braveheart, or everything that we could have hoped for from a historical drama starring Mads Mikkelsen. A principled protagonist with good intentions, whom we identify with and understand, even with his faulty decision-making; the two women who love him (one platonically); an adopted vagabond girl who brings family values into the story; a villain whom we would gladly disembowel even at the risk of losing our own freedom. Most of the film’s runtime is filled with safe, predictable clichés, but the inner motivations and fortunes of all of the characters ultimately and meaningfully intersect in the cathartic and emotional climax with a nice intellectual reach. The Promised Land is a powerful film that’s worthy of the big screen. [San Sebastian IFF] (09/26/2023)