In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) – a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero – sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. He seeks to start farming crops, build a colony in the name of the King, and gain a noble title for himself. This beautiful but forbidding area is also under the rule of the merciless Frederik De Schinkel, a preening nobleman who realises the threat Kahlen represents to his power.
Struggling against the elements and local brigands, Kahlen is joined by a couple who have fled the clutches of the rapacious De Schinkel. As this group of misfits begins to build a small community in this inhospitable place, De Schinkel swears vengeance, and the confrontation between him and Kahlen promises to be as violent and intense as these two men.
From BAFTA-nominated writer and director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), The Promised Land is a powerful Nordic twist on the western starring BAFTA nominee Mads Mikkelsen.