PROMISED LAND, THE (15)

A 18th-century Danish western set on Jutland Heath with the equally “hard…rugged and forbiddingly beautiful” (Variety) Mads Mikkelsen in the good guy saddle. Decommissioned and impoverished war hero Capt. Ludvig Kahlen sets out to make a livelihood by farming on the vast, uninhabitable tract of land on which seemingly nothing can grow. The drawback is that the area lies under the rule of Frederik De Schinkel, a merciless nobleman who sees Kahlen as a threat to his power. Bloodthirsty conflict breaks out between the factions led by these two men and Arcel’s artistry for epic-scale period filmmaking makes for rip-roaring adventure.