Rating: R | Runtime: 127 minutes
Release Date: October 5th, 2023 (Denmark) / February 2nd, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Nordisk Film Distribution / Magnolia Pictures
Director(s): Nikolaj Arcel
Writer(s): Nikolaj Arcel & Anders Thomas Jensen / Ida Jessen (book The Captain and Ann Barbara)

I work for the king.

This one hits hard. And precisely when you least expect it. Because Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land (adapted by him and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen from Ida Jessen’s book) is billed as a revenge film pitting Mads Mikkelsen’s poor military captain Ludvig von Kahlen against Simon Bennebjerg’s sadistic nobleman Frederik De Schinkel. While that is what the plot provides for a majority of the runtime, the narrative proves so much bigger. Not in external scope, but in the internal growth of a man beholden to unjust rules.

Kahlen has already overcome his peasant status by earning a rank in twenty-five years that men of means receive in just a few months. His hope is to leverage that standing into a chance at more—namely infertile land that Denmark’s king wishes to settle but has yet to bear fruit. So, he makes a deal with the government. If he produces enough yield on his own dime to attract settlers and expand the kingdom, they will give him a title. Kahlen covets that recognition and he will stop at nothing to prove worthy of it.

Enter De Schinkel, a cruel landowner who lords over that region precisely because no one can pose a threat without the ability to farm. His power is thus predicated on the heath remaining a wasteland, so he looks to bribe Kahlen into leaving and eventually strong-arm him out when he refuses. Kahlen is a pragmatic idealist who believes if he works within the system, he can ascend within it. De Schinkel is a spoiled brat who knows that his wealth allows him to bend that system to his whims. It’s David vs. Goliath on multiple fronts.

But while Mikkelsen is as terrifying as he’s ever been whenever De Schinkel pushes him to the edge of civility, the real fight on-screen is that between Kahlen and himself. Because no matter how unfeeling he wishes he could be to mimic those he wants to treat him as an equal, his past ensures that his shrewdness won’t devolve into malice. It’s not for a lack of trying—he simply cannot work alongside good people long enough to prove De Schinkel and Denmark wrong without endearing himself to them. Without, in some cases, discovering that he loves them too.

What at first seems like a bit of added intrigue to the personal land war being waged—kindness and respect for a housekeeper (Amanda Collin’s Ann Barbara) and orphan girl (Melina Hagberg’s Anmai Mus)—soon reveals itself to be the central point. Because Kahlen has a choice to make: become that which he desires at their expense and thus become their undoing or stand up for their humanity and dignity at the expense of his dream. Will he feed into the broken system that abandoned him or rise to become an alternative to it?

It’s not a simple question and Kahlen doesn’t automatically choose the correct answer. He tries to straddle the line—doing right by those he should while also not risking his own desires. But half measures only work for the side that doesn’t care if he lives or dies anyway. They’ll destroy those who cannot survive without him giving everything he has. So, the while the path forward leads to violence, the real challenge is showing where that violence comes from. Arcel and company aren’t just satiating our bloodlust in this conflict, they’re dealing with intent. “Need” and “want” are not equal.

The beauty of The Promised Land isn’t in its ability to open our eyes to this reality, but revealing it to Kahlen. We’re watching his brain get rewired as he witnesses the consequences of greed and self-righteousness and awakens himself to the fact own actions are driven by the same sins. It leads to a devastatingly brutal climax before shifting towards an emotional epilogue bringing everything together in the simplest yet most profound way possible by filling the void of tragedy with a wealth of hope. Because a man isn’t a title on a piece of paper. He’s the imprint left upon the hearts of those who love him.

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Mads Mikkelsen in THE PROMISED LAND, a Magnolia Pictures release. © Henrik Ohsten, Zentropa. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.