Danish Films ranging wide at London festival

FESTIVAL. Historical drama, black comedy, apocalyptic horror and a Dickensian documentary are the genres covered by Danish films at the BFI London Film Festival kicking off on 7 October.

"Land of Mine" was one of the "ten best films from TIFF (…) worth the flight to Canada," wrote The Village Voice after the film's enthusiastic first reception at September's Toronto Film Festival. Now Martin Zandvliet's postwar drama about young captured German soldiers digging for landmines is coming out for its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival (7-18 October).

Organised into mood and theme categories, the festival is showing "Land of Mine" in Journey – "films that transport you and shift your perspective." This section also embraces Daniel Dencik's "Gold Coast," a historical portrayal of a young botanist whose 19th century idealism is shattered when confronted with the harsh realities of Danish colonialism on the Gold Coast (now Ghana).

Discover the full list of Danish films at the 59th BFI London Film Festival, which also includes, in the Documentary Competition, Hanna Polak's IDFA-winning "Something Better to Come," the fruit of 14 years of tracking homeless children in Moscow.

Danish films in London with section tagline

Something Better to Come by Hanna Polak
Documentary Competition – Grierson Award
Read more: Human Beauty in a Russian Garbage Dump

Land of Mine by Martin Zandvilet
Journey / "Whether it's the journey or the destination, films to transport you and shift your perspective"
Read more: The Untold Story

Gold Coast by Daniel Dencik
Journey / see above
Read more: Gold Coast to Karlovy Vary and Gold Coast Set to Music by Twin Peaks Composer

Men and Chicken by Anders Thomas Jensen
Laugh / "From laugh-out-loud through romantic comedy to dry and understated – humour in all its forms"
Read more: A Very, Very Odd Tale

What We Become by Bo Mikkelsen
Cult / "From the mind-altering and unclassifiable to fantasy, sci-fi and horror"

Virgin Mountain by Dagur Kári (Icelandic-Danish co-production)
Love / "Sweet, passionate, tough – love is a complex and many splendoured thing"

BFI London Film Festival 7-18 October 2015