Danish director Nikolaj Arcel is back with a grand historical epic based on Ida Jessen's best-selling novel "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The year is 1755 and Captain Ludvig Kahlen, after serving many years in the army, finds himself in the poor house for veterans. But the captain has no intentions of staying there because he is still strong, able-bodied, and very ambitious.
His ambition appears to stem from humble origins as the illegitimate son (hence the original title "The Bastard") of a rich landowner and his maid. Without title or money, he has, against all odds, managed to work his way up to the rank of captain in Denmark's army. So he woos the king's decision-makers with a proposal - to cultivate the barren heath of Jutland and start a settlement in exchange for a title, manor, and servants.
They accept his proposal because he promises to bear all the costs himself. Also, no one has ever managed to tame the seed-resistant soil and settle in the unforgiving climate. They simply don't believe he will succeed. But Kahlen has a secret ace up his sleeve - mysterious sacks imported from Germany containing a new easy-to-grow crop, a starchy tuber that will soon have its natural place on dinner plates throughout Scandinavia; potatoes.
An epic about potato farming in Denmark may sound dull, but Kahlen's path is lined with adventure. The heath is inhabited by robbers assisted by "darklings" - imported Roma children who, with their darker skin color, frighten the superstitious Danes. What's worse; the local county judge and squire Frederik De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg) considers the moor his own personal property and soon becomes obsessed with making the proud captain fail.
But Kahlen receives help from the kind pastor Anton Eklund (Gustav Lindh) as well as the servant couple Johannes (Morten Hee Andersen) and Ann Barbara (Amanda Collin) who managed to escape De Schinkel's cruelties. A group of German settlers joins them as well, together with the Roma girl Anmai Mus (Melina Hagberg).
"The Promised Land" can be described as a dark costume drama or settler epic with a Wild West feel. However, the tone of storytelling feels as Scandinavian as "Pelle the Conqueror", "The Emigrants" or similar emigration dramas, but with more violent content. In fact, sensitive viewers should be warned of some pretty gut-wrenching scenes of human torture (yep, evil master) as well as animal slaughter (here a goat instead of cattle).
The cinematography is traditionally beautiful and grand as in old-school costume dramas. It often favors bird's-eye views, but without any love-sick maidens running across meadows with waist-long hair fluttering in the wind, accompanied by piano tunes. For Kahlen is unromantically stoic, driven by an indomitable will to succeed, the kind of strongman hero you find in Westerns or gladiator movies.
You could also see him as a kind of potato-farming version of “Scarface” or “Citizen Kane,” the kind of movie archetype who methodically works his way up step by step, letting the means sanctify the ends - only to find out that its lonely at the top. The difference is that Kahlen matures emotionally throughout the film, and softens with time...
Kahlen is an excellent role for Mikkelsen. He has nice chemistry with Collin, while the scenes with the spoiled De Schinkel add humor since Bennebjerg tackles his role playfully like an evil version of Amadeus... or rather, it's funny until the torture begins. Also, because the characters around Kahlen are so one-sidedly good or evil, sometimes even bordering on caricatures, the story feels a bit thin at times.
On the whole, however, "The Promised Land" is a grand visual cinematic experience. At times it may lean towards the sentimental and melodramatic, with some off-putting displays of 18th-century sadism, but the film is engaging throughout.
I was lucky to see it on the big screen at Scandinavia House in New York since the beautiful cinematography is best enjoyed on a large display. The package may be an old-school costume drama, but it contains a unique piece of Danish history. The details of real-life's Ludvig Kahlen who tried to cultivate Jylland's heath and Frederik de Schinkel may have faded into the shadows of time, but Arcel's fictional version is intriguing enough and well worth a trip to the movie theatre.
Rating: 3/5
