Movie · 2023 · Action, Drama, History · 2h 7m · NR · DA
Curator score: 8.6/10 (40.3K ratings)
A captain’s ambition, a ruthless rival, and a land that defies them both.
Overview
Denmark, 1755. Captain Ludvig Kahlen sets out to conquer a Danish heath reputed to be uncultivable, with an impossible goal: to establish a colony in the name of the king, in exchange for a royal title. A single-minded ambition that the ruthless lord of the region will relentlessly seek to put down. Kahlen's fate hangs in the balance: will his endevours bring him wealth and honour, or cost him his life...?
Ratings
Curator score: 8.6/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 77
TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Nikolaj Arcel
Production
Zentropa International Berlin, Zentropa International Sweden, Zentropa Entertainments
Cast
Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Simon Bennebjerg, Kristine Kujath Thorp, Gustav Lindh, Jacob Lohmann, Morten Hee Andersen, Magnus Krepper, Søren Malling, Morten Burian, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Morten Buus, Olaf Højgaard, Melina Hagberg, Felix Kramer, Laura Bilgrau Eskild-Jensen, Anna Filippa Hjarne, Jiří Konvalinka, Martin Feifel, Lasse Steen Jensen
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A stark, beautifully mounted frontier drama that turns land cultivation into a brutal test of will, class power, and moral compromise. It’s especially rewarding if you like historical epics with austere visuals, controlled intensity, and a lead performance built on grim resolve rather than speeches.
Best for
viewers who like historical dramas with grit and political conflict
fans of stoic, physically grounded lead performances
people drawn to revenge-adjacent stories and class struggle
audiences who appreciate bleak but elegant period filmmaking
Skip if
you want fast-paced action or constant battle scenes
you prefer warm, uplifting period pieces
you’re not in the mood for slow-burn conflict and harsh realism
you dislike stories centered on stubborn, emotionally restrained protagonists
Overview
The Promised Land is a hard, unsentimental frontier drama that finds tension in labor, land, and power rather than spectacle alone. Its central conflict is simple but potent: a man tries to make something grow where others insist nothing can, and that stubbornness becomes both his virtue and his curse.
Worth noting
Mads Mikkelsen gives the film its spine, playing Ludvig Kahlen with severe discipline and just enough buried feeling to keep him human. Around him, the film builds a bleak social order of cruelty, entitlement, and survival, with the landscape itself functioning like an adversary. The result is a period piece that feels physical and lived-in, not decorative.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the film’s balance of grandeur and bitterness. It has the sweep of an old-fashioned historical epic, but its emotional register is harsher and more modern: ambition is costly, justice is partial, and progress is never clean. If that sounds appealing, it’s an easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Hansen 🐽 (4★) · 2207 likes
Does for potatoes what Oppenheimer did for the atomic bomb.
mary (3.5★) · 2047 likes
There Will Be B̶l̶o̶o̶d̶ Potatoes.
Mike Flanagan · 1146 likes
Excellent frontier epic that touches on ambition, honor, vengeance, and chosen family. Mads Mikkelsen is superb (as always) as a retired Danish army officer who sets out to cultivate and settle the barren Jutland moorland, putting him into an escalating conflict with a corrupt landowner. The production is top-tier, as are the performances, particularly Amanda Collin. I was swept away by it, and very impressed by the intricate storytelling and unexpected ways in which these characters author - and succumb to - their various destinies. Highly recommended.
Robert Daniels (4★) · 912 likes
Mads Mikkelsen is a guy, purely on a visual level, I would never fuck with.
Monica (4★) · 743 likes
Period drama, revenge on a rapist and Mads Mikkelsen. Girl dinner!