An aging farmer in rural Denmark must make some difficult decisions about his family and his land in this gripping 1850s period piece from the director of the recent Papillon remake. Wily widower Jens (the brilliant Jesper Christensen) knows that he doesn't have the strength to continue his hard-scrabble farming much longer. He longs to have his beloved daughter Signe well-settled, and gain himself a pension, a weekly ride to church, and a place by the hearth. But there are his nephews to take care of too. Faced with the prospect of starvation during another tough winter, Jens enters into a Faustian pact with a wealthy, neighboring farmer that he soon comes to regret. This tense drama has the heft and incisiveness of Shakespearean tragedy. Winner, Best Actor, Chicago Film Festival, Tokyo Film Festival.
Director Biography
Danish filmmaker Michael Noer was born in Esbjerg in 1978. He began making film in 2003 after studying at the National Film School of Denmark. His other work includes Papillon (07) and Son of God (10).
Press
"A bleak and fiercely acted tale of rural strife" - Hollywood Reporter