Venice shows small films can make it, Danish director says

VENICE (Reuters): The warm reception given to Danish film “The Promised Land” at the Venice Film Festival showed that small-budget, independent films can flourish as a strike brings much of Hollywood to a standstill, its director said.

Starring Mads Mikkelsen, the movie portrays the stoic battle of a taciturn, retired army captain in the mid-18th century as he tries to tame the hostile Jutland landscape and outwit an evil, sadistic local aristocratic.

The film was made on a budget of just $9 million, but has an epic feel to it, as Mikkelsen’s character confronts the bitter elements and his own conflicted desires.

“We’re here in a way with a truly independent movie, which is also proof that you can do it. You can get around. You don’t have to do the studio system,” director Nikolaj Arcel told Reuters. “You can do it, you know, the way we want to do it … and that’s why it’s nice to be here.”

U.S. actors and writers are striking simultaneously for the first time in 63 years, shutting down both television and movie productions in Hollywood, and preventing many stars from coming to Venice to promote their films.

“Obviously as a writer, director, I’m in full support of the strike, and I really hope they will get everything they want,” Arcel said.

Arcel has experienced the U.S. studio system, having made “The Dark Tower” in 2017, which starred Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, but he said he was happy to be working in his native Danish alongside his old friend Mikkelsen, with whom he made “A Royal Affair” in 2012.

“He was in on it from the beginning, even in the script stage. So it was quite a joyful experience to do this film,” Arcel said.

“The big challenge was how to make a really big cinematic, epic experience of scope with the Scandinavian budget,” he said. “I think, and hope that we achieve that. But that was tough. We worked a lot of hours every single day for a long time.”

“The Promised Land” is one of 23 movies competing for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, which runs until Sept. 9.