- Denmark
VALHALLA RISING
Synopsis
A man with no name, no voice, with only one eye, kept like an animal: One-Eye is put forward as a fighter by a chieftain and wins every match. When he frees himself, a boy follows him, and the two join a group of Christians setting out on a crusade to the Holy Land. The ship is caught in fog, the coast where they run aground is not the one they expected, and the journey becomes a descent – into an unknown world and into the visions that haunt One-Eye. Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Valhalla Rising” (Denmark 2009), with Mads Mikkelsen in a role without a single word, is set in the twelfth century and was shot in Scotland.
Refn has structured the film into chapters and reduced dialogue to a minimum; its tone is closer to a trip than a historical drama. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. “Valhalla Rising” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2010.
Festival
Shown at the 2010 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
