The Promised Land

In 1755, the impoverished captain Ludvig Kahlen sets out to conquer the harsh, uninhabitable Danish heath with a seemingly impossible goal: to build a colony in the name of the King. But the sole ruler of the area, the merciless Frederik de Schinkel, arrogantly believes this land belongs to him. For all the strengths that make Nikolaj Arcel’s sixth feature such a richly satisfying historical drama, the most compelling may be the least surprising. That’s the old-school screen charisma that Mads Mikkelsen exudes in great abundance as a man who is tested by nearly every conceivable hardship in 18th-century Denmark.