“The Promised Land,” or in Danish, “Bastarden” (literally translated as “the bastard”), is a historical drama directed and co-written by Nikolaj Arsel. The film is based on the book “Captain and Anne Barbara” by author Ida Jessen. It premiered on August 31st at the Venice Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Lion. It will represent Denmark at the upcoming Oscars and has been shortlisted for the award.
Our protagonist is a cold, firm, and stubborn man without a name, title, or reputation of any significant or any kind. He desires much more than he has and believes that his effort and determination will bring him everything he desires. Ludvig Kaylen (Mads Mikkelsen) is a character deserving of great admiration and sympathy, but his heavy and unapproachable personality slightly hinders that. The central question of the film is whether survival and success in this place and time, in the wilderness of Denmark in the mid-18th century, require such characteristics or not – the answer, as with many things about human nature and behavior, is more complicated than something simple and clear.
What’s remarkable in Arsel’s storytelling of this tale is the simplicity of narration and characters. This is a story of great ambitions, cruelty, the corrupt nature of climbing social and financial hierarchies, and how human life can become insignificant in the face of these goals and behaviors. However, the film approaches these themes through an extremely uncomplicated narrative.
There’s our hero, a man of entirely selfish intentions who will do almost anything to achieve his goal. There’s our villain, the twisted reflection of the main character who will do anything to achieve his own. It’s a subtle difference between these two men, but it’s fascinating to watch that small difference become the heart of the struggle between two sharp and firm wills. It often seems like no one can win in this scenario, especially under the conditions it’s played out, but under those same conditions, losses are tragic and inevitable. One of them must change, but is that even possible in these circumstances?
It certainly doesn’t seem so for most of Kaylen’s story. We meet him as a retired military veteran who has nothing but a meager pension, worn-out clothes, a faded uniform, and insignia from his time in the German army. Kaylen was promoted to the rank of captain during his long years of service and believes that he’s owed more than mere existence for his hard work. At this point, it’s clear that no one will give him anything, so Kaylen will have to take it for himself.
The opportunity comes from the Danish king’s desire to cultivate the wasteland in the northern part of the country. Many have tried to settle there and grow crops, but no one has succeeded. However, Kaylen has a secret plan, and the royal court readily gives him permission to try, if only to indulge the monarch’s seemingly impossible dream. The only thing Kaylen asks for, if successful in the highly unlikely venture, is permanent ownership of the wilderness and a noble title to go with it. The king’s advisers agree to his terms, confident that they will fail regardless of the promised reward.
That’s the basic plot setup revolving around Kaylen’s efforts in the venture he has planned. There are troubles from the outset, with a band of vagabonds trying to steal whatever they can, difficulties in transporting equipment and supplies to the distant marshlands, and workers who are skeptical of Kaylen’s apparent madness. The married couple Johannes and Anne Barbara have fled from the estate of a local nobleman, and Kaylen offers them a chance to hide in the wilderness.
The most significant obstacle is of an aristocratic nature. It’s Frederik De Schinkel, a nobleman who inherited his estate from his father, a man who worked almost as hard as Kaylen to earn his land and title. De Schinkel, who has added “de” to his surname to sound more aristocratic, knows nothing but ease and privilege. Everything he ever wanted came to him without any effort, and now this lowborn commoner, the illegitimate son of a nobleman and a servant, is the only thing standing in his way of claiming the entire wilderness for himself.
This old, familiar conflict the authors use as their exploration of human nature, what makes and breaks the notion of civilization, and whether circumstances make people what they are or if some element of humanity is rooted in the need for control. The landscape is naturally portrayed as a place of great beauty and unyielding harshness and serves as a backdrop that embodies the contradictions and differences of its characters.
In Mikkelsen’s performance, the film has a central figure who appears unfeeling, indifferent, and insensitive to the problems of other people. However, it will turn out that he’s capable of a little warmth, and Kaylen’s evolution is subtle and quite striking. Meanwhile, De Schinkel becomes a villain who is most hated and deserving of hatred – not just for how ruthless the man proves to be but also in the way the actor infuses the character with a pathetic degree of impotence. These two characters are very similar at the outset and through much of the conflict, and the film explores the reality and limits of that comparison.
“The Promised Land” is an excellent Danish historical drama set in the 1750s filled with complex themes related to ambition and stubbornness, in which Mads Mikkelsen portrays a character who must confront himself to determine what he truly desires.
