Blending the grand visuals of a sweeping epic with the psychological unease of a chamber piece, Charlotte Sieling’s characteristic probes the legacy of Denmark’s Queen Margrete, a visionary ruler who brokered the historic Kalmar Union that – for the primary time – united Norway, Sweden and Denmark towards the specter of a German invasion.
However her reign additionally noticed a weird thriller within the Scandinavian area, which varieties the emotional beating coronary heart of this stately movie. On the eve of the engagement between Margrete’s adopted son Erik (Morten Hee Andersen), and Princess Philippa (Diana Martinová), daughter of England’s Henry IV, information broke that the Queen’s organic son King Olaf (Jakob Oftebro) had returned from the useless. This sudden arrival not solely unsettled political coalitions but additionally despatched the normally stoic Margrete right into a state of misery. Since she was not at his aspect when Olaf died, her maternal grief inspired her to consider that Olaf had survived. Then again, her monarchical rationality questioned if he was merely an impostor despatched to her doorsteps to disrupt a sought-after alliance with England.
A lot of this emotional tug-of-war is performed out in atmospherically lit indoor compositions, which evoke a painterly, classical really feel. What elevates the movie from a run-of-the-mill interval drama is Trine Dyrholm’s masterfully understated efficiency because the tormented queen. Her Margrete has no must shout and weep to convey her turmoil; a mere gaze is sufficient to articulate the dilemma of getting to place collective wants over private needs. Whereas the plot is at occasions overstuffed with palace intrigues, this piercing character research carries a recent poignancy, because it encapsulates the tough selections a feminine chief has to make in a world bounded by patriarchal management.
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