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. In exchange, he'll receive a desperately desired Royal name for himself. But the sole ruler of the area, the merciless Frederik de Schinkel, arrogantly believes this land belongs to him. When de Schinkel learns that the maid Ann Barbara and her serve husband have escaped for refuge with Kahlen, the privileged and spiteful ruler swears revenge, doing everything in his power to drive the captain away. Kahlen will not be intimated and takes up the unequal battle - not only risking his life, but also the family of outsiders that has formed around him.
When I had the utterly transformative experience of becoming a father a few years ago, I began viewing my past films, including the memories of making them, through a new lens. While I remain proud of the work (most of it, anyway!), it reflects the outlook of a man with a single purpose; a passionate dedication to creating stories and art… but not much else. The Promised Land grew out of that existential reckoning, and is, by far, my most personal film to date. Aided by Ida Jessen’s brilliant novel, Anders Thomas Jensen and I wanted to tell a grand, epic tale about how our ambitions and desires will inevitably fail if they are all we have. Life is chaos; painful and ugly, beautiful and extraordinary, and we are often helpless to control it. As the saying goes, “We make plans and God laughs”.
In order for our website to function optimally, we use cookies for some of our applications. This includes i.a. the embedded social media, but also a tracking tool that provides us with information about the ergonomics of our website and user behavior. If you click on "Accept all cookies", you agree to the use of technically necessary cookies and those to optimize our website. See "Cookie Settings" for more information.
Control settings
Please select your preferences. You can change these at any time.
In order for our website to function optimally, we use cookies for some of our applications. These cannot be deactivated, otherwise you will not be able to use all applications.
In order to make our website as user-friendly as possible, we have i.a. social media embedded on our website. This allows you to share content with your loved ones on the appropriate network with just a few clicks. We also use anonymous tracking technology, which gives us information about e.g. the user behavior, but also the effectiveness and ergonomics of our website. For this purpose, we also use services that may be based outside the European Union (especially in the USA), where the level of data protection may be lower than in Germany.