GoMovieReview Rating: ★★★★
Rated: MA15+
Directed by: Nikolaj Arcel
Screenplay Written by: Nikolaj Arcel, Anders Thomas Jensen
Based on the Book by: Ida Jessen
Produced by: Louise Vesth
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg, Gustav Lindh, Kristine Kujath Thorp.
‘God is chaos. Life is chaos.’
‘I don’t agree.’
Opening in 1755, the heath of Jutland cannot be cultivated.
For decades the king has sent men to tame the heath but it cannot be tamed; until single-minded Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) seeks permission, his reward a noble title, manor and servants.
The Royal Treasury betting on the captain being unsuccessful, they agree, not realising the determination of Kahlen, a gardener’s boy turned decorated captain, serving 25 years in Germany.
Kahlen hacks at the heath, harrowing by hand as the seasons pass with snow, sun, rain and mist. With the help of a minister, Anton Eklund (Gustav Lindh), he finds husband and wife, Johannes Eriksen (Morten Hee Andersen) Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin), runaway farming tenants to keep house and farm in return for shelter and food. But no wage.
It’s the best deal they’ll get, on the run from their master, Frederik De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg), Khalan’s powerful neighbour, the scars running across Johannes back telling the tale of Schinkel’s brutality, symptomatic of the nobility shown to care more for politics than the value of life, servants treated like slaves, raped and whipped and boiled alive.
Schinkel decides the heath is his land.
Uncultivated land is the king’s land. But if Khalen is successful, the land will be settled, bringing people, making Khalen a noble and therefore competition for power.
The film follows Khalen as he fights for his dream, digging deeper into his past as he builds his life with the people who share his work, the outlaws and the young darkling, Anmai Mus (Melinda Hagberg) bought and sold and cheeky.
There’s a David and Goliath theme, and what Khalen’s willing to sacrifice to succeed.
Director and screenwriter, Nikolaj Arcel states: ‘I wanted to tell a grand, epic tale about how our ambitions and desires will inevitably fail if they are all we have. Life is chaos; painful and ugly, beautiful and extraordinary, and we are often helpless to control it. As the saying goes, “We make plans and God laughs.”’
At times, The Promised Land hard to watch because I became emotionally invested in the characters, the hard choices, the evil of power – it’s a dark tale but there’s also light.
Like the endless fields of heather, it’s a vast feeling, watching the earth turn over, the soil running through Khalen’s hands, so the film becomes a story about what to hold onto in life and what to let go.