Nikolaj Arcel is not a common name, but many have certainly heard of his film The Dark Tower (and few have seen it). The adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy epic was launched in 2017 as the franchise kick-off, but fizzled out in the process.
The film grossed just over 100 million. The reviews were disastrous. Rumors of a turbulent post-production at Variety did not exactly recommend Arcel for the next Hollywood gig. So it was back to Denmark, where Arcel brings together two people who learn to hate each other to the core. Screening at this year’s Venice Film Festival, King’s Land is a successful comeback and a welcome stage for Mads Mikkelsen’s laser-sharp gaze.
That’s what King’s Land is about with Mads Mikkelsen
The gripping historical drama takes you back to the year 1755, where the officer Ludvig Kahlen (Mikkelsen) wants to join good society after serving in the war. Without land and money, there is only one way left: the Reclamation of the barren heathland in Jutland. Infertile soil, gangs of robbers and strong winds have made previous attempts at colonization unsuccessful. Kahlen tries anyway, drawing the wrath of upstart Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg). The “de” in the name is of course only bought.
Plaion
King’s country
Schinkel is a sadist who terrorizes his subordinates, prefers to torture escaped serfs in the evenings and gets drunk at the same time. Ludvig, in turn, became obsessed with the desire for land and realizes it with the utmost military severity. Both don’t exactly nestle close to your heart, but between the nouveau riche to torture and the Heide captain it’s easy to choose increasingly brutal duel for the inhospitable piece of land.
A star from Raised by Wolves plays the unsung heroine of the heathen western
The Heide-Western is bursting with beautiful panoramas of the sweeping landscape. Mikkelsen’s angular features fit into it as if Ludvig had never been anywhere else. Arcel and co-author Anders Thomas Jensen (two Danish screenplay luminaries) could have written a run-of-the-mill history ham from these show values and that would probably have been acceptable. But that’s how Bastarden (the pithy original title) develops into one Twist-rich confrontation with the longing for social advancement and the price one is willing to pay for it.
Plaion
King’s country
In this he even resembles Michael Mann’s Venice contribution Ferrari in parts, although Arcel loves his landscape shots and pretty interiors too much to disturb them with the beginnings of a decipherable style. Thanks to the screenplay, King’s Land is exceptionally exempt from such details. Every time you smell a faded cliché of such stories, it’s either subverted or imaginatively varied.
This can be seen in this men’s duel in the female staff around the outstanding Amanda Collin. The Star from the defunct sci-fi series Raised by Wolves plays an escaped serf who swears revenge on the wrong noble. Collins’ taciturn Ann Barbara becomes the film’s unsung heroine. Their willpower could move mountains or at least tons of heather soil. Only she knows that a few markers on a map do not mean luck.
King’s Land will be in German cinemas in autumn/winter 2023.