Synopsis
The Promised Land (Bastarden, 2023) is a historical drama by Nikolaj Arcel that you can watch online on iFILM. Denmark, 1755: a retired army captain rides out to tame a heath everyone swears cannot be tamed.
Ludvig Kahlen gave the king's army twenty-five years and refuses to fade away in a veterans' home. His bargain is simple and reckless — cultivate the barren moors of Jutland, plant a royal colony there, and earn the noble title he was never born to. The treasury shrugs and lets him try. But the local landowner, Frederik de Schinkel, sees a commoner trespassing on land he believes is his, and there is almost nothing he won't do to break the man. Mads Mikkelsen plays Kahlen tight as a coiled spring, saying more with a clenched jaw than most actors manage with a monologue.
Adapted from Ida Jessen's novel and rooted in the life of a real Danish settler, the film carried Denmark's flag at the Oscars and swept its national awards. If you like slow-burning, flinty period drama about the price of ambition, this one earns every minute. Stream The Promised Land (2023) online on iFILM.
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