Last updated on September 4, 2023
A film by Nikolaj Arcel
With: Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Gustav Lindh, Jacob Ulrik Lohmann, Morten Hee Andersen, Magnus Krepper, Felix Kramer, Thomas W. Gabrielsson
In the mid-1700s, Danish King Frederik V declared that the wild heath of Jutland should be tamed, cultivated and colonized so that civilization could spread and new taxes be generated for the royal house. However, no one dared to follow the King’s decree. The heath meant certain death – a godforsaken place haunted by ravenous wolves, highwaymen and brutal, unforgiving nature. But in the late summer of 1755, a lone soldier by the name of Ludvig von Kahlen rode into the heath in a stubborn pursuit of a lifelong dream, determined to reach his goal: the heath would either bring him the wealth and honour he had long sought… or get the better of him.
Our Review: **(*)
Somewhere between a Heinrich von Kleist story à la Michael Kolhaas, a Mallickian observation on the human condition and individual and collective destiny (albeit without religious conditions), as seen in Days of Heaven, King’s Land possesses three obvious qualities that enable us to appreciate it. Firstly, its patient, meticulous script provides each of its characters with a clear identity, an identifiable quest, simple aspirations, ambitions, feelings, resentments, hopes and backlashes, in a skilfully balanced way, and evolutions that, without playing the one-upmanship, the twist, allows the viewer to maintain a certain curiosity over the duration of the story. Clear without being predictable, rich without being complex or arduous. The general harshness of the story, which has to be perceptible to draw the viewer’s concentration and stir his emotions about the prevailing injustice, goes hand in hand with the rocky natural scenery, the silence of the main hero, the isolation into which he locks himself in order to follow what he believes to be his destiny, his way out, as a man of honor. His pride, his determination, his uprightness, his strength deserved a strong embodiment, an expressive look or gesture, an exercise in which Mads Mikkelsen excels. The overall streamlining of the story, the direction and the acting contribute to this general atmosphere of austerity, which offers a philosophical grammar that questions the basics of the human condition, primary feelings and essential needs, far removed from any sophistication or escapism (leisure, distractions, social relationships, etc.). Finally, our opinion would not have been so positive if the film did not also present an interesting singularity. It seemed to us that, in speaking to us of a distant, bygone era, of aspirations that may seem outdated and irrelevant, Danish director Nikolaj Arcel had a very different intention, bringing us back to today, to the primary behaviors that are still rife: racism, fear of others, jealousy, struggles for power or influence, mistreatment, humiliation, cruelty, injustices linked to the social caste from which a person comes. All this can be found in today’s society, in circles such as politics, playgrounds, large corporations, villages and cities alike… This promised land, this land of kings, necessarily refers to the distribution of wealth that can take place today when one system of society has taken precedence over the others: capitalism, a dream factory that suggests that everyone, through hard work, courage, willpower and determination, can succeed, can make it! But at what price? for what sacrifice? for what percentage of success? At the expense of happiness itself?
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