In 18th-century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) sets out in the name of the king to tame the Jutland heath—a vast, barren stretch of wilderness that has felled many an aspiring pioneer. A hard, driven man of low origins, Kahlen seeks to legitimize his existence. His efforts push him to the edge of survival and put him in direct conflict with the grotesquely brutal nobleman Schinkel, who seems to be everything Ludvig isn't. Based on Ida Jessen's best-selling novel The Captain and Ann Barbara, itself inspired by real characters, Nikolaj Arcel's epic has the mesmerizing spectacle of a Western, the visceral urgency of a revenge thriller and the queasy moral complexity of an existential drama. At its heart is Mikkelsen's spellbinding performance, which brings layers of contradiction to one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures in Danish history. Courtesy of Magnolia
 
D: Nikolaj Arcel, DEN, subtitled, 2012, 2h7m

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