The Best of Danish Cinema

One could pen many a love letter to the numerous contributions the Danes have made to cinema.

We at Alamo Drafthouse have spent a year celebrating those contributions through our partnership with the Danish Film Institute. As this collection series comes to a close, we’re proud to send you out with a final duo of dynamic Danish films. We know that you’ll be just as excited to experience these movies as we are presenting them to you. We hope that watching them will inspire you to take a deep dive into more of the past, present, and future of Danish cinema.

Oh, and to the dear People of Denmark,

Please continue making films!

Love,

Alamo Drafthouse

The Mads Pack- A small offering of some of the incredible works from Denmark’s most prolific cross-over actor. You may know him from his roles in films like CASINO ROYAL, ROGUE ONE, and DR. STRANGE, allow us to introduce you to him in some films that will absolutely not disappoint. This series begins with his film debut in 1996 as a drug dealer in Nicolas Winding Refn’s internationally successful film Pusher, which spawned two sequels. Then jump to THE HUNT where Mikkelsen plays a schoolteacher for the first time in a Thomas Viterberg film, this one is heavy with the emotional baggage carried around by Mads. A ROYAL AFFAIR came out the same year as THE HUNT but showcases a very different side of Mikkelsen spectrum as he takes on the role of the 18th century physician Johann Friedrich Struensee who had an affair with Queen Caroline Mathilda. MEN & CHICKEN is the perfect example of Mads truly shining in the darkest of comedic ways before he returned to the role of schoolteacher in another Thomas Vinterberg film, this time in a much different light. ANOTHER ROUND won the Academy award for Best International Feature Film and Vinterberg was nominated for best director. Finally, we cap off this collection with his latest and greatest work in RIDERS OF JUSTICE where Mads plays a hell-bent father, sworn to revenge his wife’s death, while attempting to raise his teenage daughter without letting his emotions or his midly incompetent band of conspirators get the best of him.

DON’T STOP THERE! We have the pleasure of sharing with you a collection of documentaries so vastly different and comprehensive that it is hard to believe they came out of one country. These films do not require much of an introduction. Each one of these documentaries challenges viewers with radical innovations to the nonfiction form.

Denmark gifted us a second great Mads, Mads Brügger, renown Danish documentary filmmaker and journalist. He has a habit of pushing boundaries to expose corruption and human rights violations with a gentle touch of charisma. THE RED CHAPEL, THE AMBASSADOR, and COLD CASE HAMMERSKJӦLD are a masterclass on investigative journalism that people actually want to watch.

Joshua Oppenheimer, Academy Award nominated Danish documentarian, was born in Austin, Texas. He made THE ACT OF KILLING, and the companion film, THE LOOK OF SILENCE, about human rights violations and the mass killings that took place in Indonesia in the 60’s.

“_If Oppenheimer’s aim is to question and investigate what life the past has in the present, he has succeeded in a staggeringly original way._” - Dave Calhoun, Time Out

HAXAN is the final Documentary in this Six Pack and for a film that was made 90 years prior to these other releases. It not only holds its own, but is a clear indication of deep seated Danish innovative and groundbreaking talents in production. “_Swedish and Danish pictures easily hold the palm for morbid realism and in many cases for brilliant acting and production._” - Variety