The Promised Land review: Mads Mikkelsen’s expression ranges from ticked off to mildly less ticked off

Selected cinemas; Cert 15A

The Promised Land - Trailer

Hilary White

Under Rembrandt skies, a low-born soldier toils at the land to try and draw a yield from it. This is Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen – who else?), the 18th-century Danish hero who made it his mission post-military to cultivate the barren heath of Jutland and present it to the king.

Along with poor soil quality, Kahlen’s other major obstacle to progress is judge and all-round sadist de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg), who insists that the commonage is in fact his and not property of the crown.

With Kahlen batting away any such overtures by this brattish local lord, life at the remote farmhouse he shares with a liberated serf (Amanda Collin) and a young Romani girl is about to become fraught with intimidation and violence. Kahlen, teak-tough from his time in the German Army, won’t be easily cowed, mind.

Released in Denmark as The Bastard, this rather more drably titled Western gives good bang for its buck when it comes to rural hostility, steely frontiersmanship and fixing wagons. Mikkelsen’s expression ranges from ticked off to mildly less ticked off. Bennebjerg, meanwhile, camps it up opposite him as a splendid villain.

Four stars