THE PROMISED LAND Trailer: Mads Mikkelsen Fights For Honor in Denmark’s Oscar Entry

Whenever he’s not playing your usual villain in blockbusters, Mads Mikkelsen displays his impeccable wide range of acting in his native Denmark. He is just fresh off a Best Actor win at the European Film Awards for his performance in Nikolaj Arcel’s period drama, The Promised Land. In their second collaboration since the Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair, Arcel directs Mikkelsen in the role of a war hero seeking to achieve wealth and honor, but soon makes an enemy out of a wealthy landowner (Simon Bennebjerg) looking to grab power for himself. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and TIFF, and is Denmark’s official entry to the 96th Academy Awards. Magnolia Pictures has just released the gripping trailer ahead of its February release.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) – a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero — sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. He seeks to start farming crops, build a colony in the name of the King, and gain a noble title for himself. This beautiful but forbidding area also happens to be under the rule of the merciless Frederik De Schinkel, a preening nobleman who realizes the threat Kahlen represents to his power. Struggling against the elements and local brigands, Kahlen is joined by a couple who have fled the clutches of the rapacious De Schinkel. As this group of misfits begins to build a small community in this inhospitable place, De Schinkel swears vengeance, and the confrontation between him and Kahlen promises to be as violent and intense as these two men.

The Promised Land opens in theaters February 2. Watch the official trailer below.

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