Danish-Faroese Film Starring Pilou Asbæk Wins Strong Reviews

“Wonderful,” “mesmerizing” and “unresolved” are among the words Danish critics have used for No Rest for the Wicked, a Danish-Faroese film opening in Danish cinemas on Thursday.

Pilou Asbæk plays Helge, a Danish whaler who arrives in the Faroe Islands, while Egor Venned plays Baldur, a Faroese fisherman living with his widowed mother. Sofia Nolsøe plays Baldur’s mother, Ásla, a role that Ekko’s reviewer called the film’s true discovery. The magazine gave the film five stars and wrote, “Sofia Nolsøe as mother Ásla is the film’s true discovery. She says more with her facial expressions than many actors manage with their entire presence.”

Set in a fictional version of the Faroes in the 1860s, the film depicts an isolated island society where life seems to move in circles. Helge’s arrival brings desire between two men at a time when a relationship between men was far from acceptable. Soundvenue also awarded the film five stars, interpreting Asbæk’s character as a postcolonial jab at the Danish realm.

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Sofia Nolsøe as mother Ásla is the film’s true discovery. She says more with her facial expressions than many actors manage with their entire presence.

The reviewer described Helge as a mysterious, self-satisfied Dane who enters the Faroes with arrogance and ignorance. Kristeligt Dagblad gave the film four stars, saying it was worth seeing but suggesting that its sexual and frightening elements could have been even stronger.

The reviews also focus on the landscape. Politiken gave the film three stars and described the Faroese nature as beautiful as a love story and violent as divine punishment, with spray and rumbling granite. Kasper Kalle directed the film, with a screenplay by Rasmus Birch based on Karl Heinrich Ulrichs’s 1885 novella Manor.

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The battered protagonist is initially somewhat wary of the mysterious, self-satisfied Dane who enters the Faroes with arrogance and ignorance.