Actor Mads Mikkelsen reteams with director Nikolaj Arcel for 'The Promised Land,' Denmark's international feature entry at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Mads Mikkelsen at the Four Seasons in 2023. Looking for ways to show the cracks in the stalwart von Kahlen was the challenge. “He couldn’t be me,” said Mikkelsen.

It was Mr. Refn, Mr. Mikkelsen’s most frequent collaborator, who gave him his first feature role, in the gritty “Pusher” (1996). “I made him,” he said, deadpan.

The Danish drama “The Promised Land” takes its old-fashioned remit with enjoyable seriousness. Set in the mid-18th century, it is a classic tale of haves and have-nots filled with gristle and ...