The Promised Land (aka Bastarden)

Every great actor eventually finds the role that seems to contain all the others. For Mads Mikkelsen, there's a strong case that role is Ludvig Kahlen.

Denmark, 1755. Retired army captain Ludvig Kahlen arrives on the vast, barren Jutland heath with an impossible ambition. Armed with little more than determination and a royal commission, he sets out to cultivate land that everyone else believes is impossible to tame. If he succeeds, he'll earn the noble title he's spent his entire life chasing. If he fails, he'll disappear without a trace.

Standing in his way is Frederik de Schinkel, a wealthy and deeply sadistic landowner who considers the heath his personal domain. As the conflict between the two men escalates, Kahlen finds himself building an unlikely family from society's outcasts while discovering that some things are worth far more than status or recognition.

Directed by A Royal Affair filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel, THE PROMISED LAND is part historical epic, part frontier western and part character study. Like the great American westerns, it's fascinated by civilisation, wilderness and the extraordinary people willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of an impossible dream.

Mads Mikkelsen has rarely been better. Kahlen is proud, stubborn, deeply flawed and almost incapable of expressing affection, yet Mads gradually reveals the humanity beneath his iron exterior with astonishing subtlety. It's the kind of performance that only becomes richer the longer you sit with it.

Premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival and selected as Denmark's submission for the Academy Awards, THE PROMISED LAND stands among the finest European films of the decade. If you've somehow missed it until now, you're in for something very special.