The Promised Land

There are times in the impressive Danish historical drama The Promised Land where Dr Lecter peeks from the eyes of the main character...

The anti-immigrant and Romani sentiment expressed by Danes in 1755, although tinged with superstition, sounds eerily familiar. Mostly, though, The Promised Land, in common with its hero, ploughs a furrow as a rough-hewn costumed adventure.


The only problem here is that the whole ends up feeling a bit didactic and leaning towards the narrative style of Hollywood simplicity, yet does not take away from the power of a film that definitely deserves to be seen. [Full review in Spanish]

The Promised Land builds like a glacier or rock formation — and it delivers.

If every scene doesn’t land with maximum impact, Mikkelsen nonetheless remains the film’s MVP and an actor who can somehow galvanise an entire movie with a plethora of commanding, often wordless, close-ups.

Western fans and connoisseurs of mid-budget European cinema don’t typically have much on which they can agree. The Promised Land builds a bridge between the two and makes the crossing entirely worthwhile.

Terrific cinematography (Rasmus Videbaek) and utterly convincing production design (Jette Lehmann) mark this intimate epic.

Thrilling, shapely, pleasingly nasty epic, a ravishing Danish Western with savagery in its trim bones. Mads Mikkelsen is the sulk center screen, handsome visage made for melodrama... Pride kills&#59; Mikkelsen thrills.

Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Arcel join forces again to tell a fantastic story of hardship and family in a time when nothing was assured.

Set against a background of high and wide vistas to the sound of roaring winds, a primal drama with impressive performances from Mikkelsen and the cast that offers another powerful foundation story for our time