Margrete: Queen of the North – REVIEW
Image: Trine Dyrholm as Margrete: Queen of the North. Image: film still
By MARTIN FABINYI
Danish filmmaking has a rich pedigree, from the work of Ole Olsen, who founded the first Danish film-making company, Nordisk Films Kompagni in 1906, to Lars Von Trier dominating the late 90s and 21st century with masterpieces including Breaking The Waves (1996), Dancing In The Dark (2000) and Melancholia (2011).
Whilst Von Trier has been the most prominent and controversial contemporary Danish director, other voices have recently been heard, with actor/director Charlotte Sieling’s transition from high-end television (The Killing, Borgen, The Bridge) to her third feature Margrete: Queen Of The North.
A sumptuous story of palace intrigue, the machinations of power and the complexities of family, Margrete: Queen Of The North is one of the largest productions in the history of Danish cinema, with the highest budget ever for a Danish-language feature film.
And the kroners are well and truly up on the screen. The film opens on the gory 1361 Battle of Visby where Denmark and its neighbours fought with bloodthirsty passion before moving 40 years on to inside the lavish court of the queen who, behind the throne, would rule not only Denmark but also Norway and Sweden in a union that lasted over a century.
A fictionalised account of the ‘False Oluf‘, an impostor who in 1402 claimed to be the deceased King Olaf II/Olav IV of Denmark-Norway, son of the title character Margrete I of Denmark, the film pits mother against (her presumed) son and her adopted son and now king Erik of Pomerania,
Margrete: Queen Of The North is a tense thriller where the corruption of absolute power is set against the age-old story of the to-death struggles of family. Trine Dyrholm plays the titular role as a complicated mother still grieving her lost son, and willing to believe that (imposter – or is he?) Oluf is the son returned to her after fifteen years presumed dead.
Søren Malling, well-known to English-speaking audiences for his roles in Danish-noir television including Borgen, plays with restraint the odious Bishop Peder willing to put to death anyone who would upset the delicate balance of peaceful Scandinavia, and Morten Hee Andersen plays Erik of Pomerania as the weak and insecure king.
The production of the film was entangled in the pandemic, with filming halted in March 2020, and fresh funding sourced from, among government incentives, the Queen Margrethe & Prince Henrik Foundation, creating a continuous line of royal patronage from the 14th century to the 21st.
Margrete: Queen Of The North is a gripping slice of medieval majesty set on an epic canvas drawn not just from the history of Denmark but all of Scandinavia. Not to be missed.
★★★★★
Opens November 24 through Palace Films
www.palacefilms.com.au
