The most hard-hitting Danish films aim for the heart and brain with the same intensity as the best from, say, Korean cinema. Here's a list to introduce the cinema of Denmark to a first-timer. (Compiled by Sajin Shrijith)
If we are talking classics, Dreyer is a good place to start. Marked by high-contrast images filmed in stunning monochrome, his films explored complex themes such as spirituality, identity, good and evil, and trials and tribulations of women.
As the schoolteacher accused of something he didn't do, Mads Mikkelsen delivers a breathtakingly high-voltage performance that's one for the ages while posing some pertinent questions. Thomas Vinterberg directed Mads again in the excellent 'Another Round'.
It's not often we come across a movie about a serial killer that not only makes you deeply reflect on existence, morality, empathy, and parenthood, but also the extraordinary filmmaking craft that went into it.
Nicolas Winding Refn's crime trilogy is unique for its uncompromisingly gritty and violent aesthetic coupled with anxiety-inducing scenarios, where two supporting characters of the first film become the leads in the second and third films.
Generating plenty of tension out of a single character positioned in a single setting may be much harder than the alternative. Such is the impression created by one of Denmark's finest thrillers.
Mads Mikkelsen is a family man forced to make some hard choices in an exquisitely shot revenge Western that's also a powerfully moving family drama. It saw the actor reunite with 'Riders of Justice' (also good!) director Nikolaj Arcel.
Directed by Susanne Bier ("Bird Box"), it's an emotionally overpowering Danish film with an Indian connection, in which Mads Mikkelsen essayed the caretaker of an Indian orphanage. Ignore the remake.
Not to be confused with the 2011 film 'Headhunters', this corporate thriller stars Mads Mikkelsen's brother Lars, as a protagonist caught up in an ample amount of paranoia and intrigue, complemented by aptly sleek photography. One fight scene is straight out of Jason Bourne.