Review by The_late_Buddy_Ryan

Normally the introduction of a novel food crop onto a barren tract of scrubland wouldn't make for a very involving film, but this one has Mads Mikkelsen, an excellent script based on what seems like a fine historical novel, a villain you love to hate and a strong supporting cast, including a band of Pythonesque outlaws and wandering Roma (called "Taters" in the CC, based on the mistaken belief that they were Tatars from Central Asia when they first arrived in Denmark).

The original Danish title--a word that's almost the same in English but I mustn't mention here bc "community standards"--gives a better sense of our hero's motivation. Mads's character, Captain Kahlen, is the unacknowledged son of a rapey landowner who was sent off to join the Prussian army as a boy. Now retired with a small pension, he's taken up a standing offer to cultivate a vast (by Danish standards) expanse of heath that's resisted all efforts to tame it in return for a noble title and a share of the takings. The king approves in principle but his ministers are unhelpful and the neighboring gentry downright hostile. As mentioned, the captain has a trick up his sleeve--a New World staple that's slowly crept northward through the fields of France and Germany but is still unknown in Denmark. (No points for guessing...)

Fine performances by all, especially newcomer Melina Hagberg as the light-fingered, potty-mouthed Roma girl Ahnmai Mus, Simon Benebjerg as the sadistic landowner De Schinkel, and action star Amanda Colin ("Raised by Wolves") as the captain's avenging angel. I recommend the CC over the dubbed soundtrack; the dubbing's pretty good, but the original Danish and German dialogue's much more expressive, and the subtitlist's gone above and beyond finding English equivalents for the Taters' "gypsy" cant.