The Promised Land (Bastarden)

Denmark in the 18th century. To increase tax revenues...

...Danish kings try to domesticate and settle the vast moorland of the Jutland peninsular.

But nature is unforgiving, the soil is poor, the countryside is infested with vagabonds...

...and for decades, all those who are sent out there, fail.

The moorland cannot be farmed.

COPENHAGEN 1755

POOR-HOUSE FOR WAR VETERANS

THE ROYAL TREASURY

Your Majesty...

The carriage is waiting.

Yes, thank you... We'll leave when I'm ready.

Ludvig Kahlen? We're ready for you.

Chancellor Paulli.

Who do we have here?

Mr Paulli, Captain Kahlen is home, after 25 years in the German army.

He's seeking permission to build on the Jutland moorland.

Very nice drawings, soldier.

It's just a waste of your time.

The moorland can't be used.

All land can be used.

A third of the kingdom is wasted. It's a disgrace to our country.

I can conquer the soil and build the first property on the moor.

Listen to me. There's just heather, rock and sand.

Nothing can be grown there.

It's been demonstrated, over and over again, by better men than you.

With all due respect, I'd like to ask for an audience with the king.

Yes, of course.

Will someone please send for His Majesty?

We're not wasting any more state money on cultivating the heath-land.

Especially not on a conceited soldier in a shitty uniform.

Show him out.

I don't want a penny. I'll finance it myself.

How?

I have my captain's pension.

That's virtually nothing.

Let's say that you manage to build a property.

What do you think should be the reward for your generous offer?

A noble title...

...with associated manor and servants.

Could you wait outside, please?

He's a nobody.

Father unknown.

His mother was a maid in a mansion.

He was a gardener before his time in the German army.

He managed to become a captain, despite his low status.

His demands are insane.

The demands are immaterial.

We can promise him to become Czar of Russia.

Nobody can farm that moorland.

But so long as he's out there, we can say to his majesty...

...that we are still struggling for his beloved moorland project.

Captain Kahlen.

Please come in... We have good news.

T H E B A S T A R D

Help! Help me!

A little coin for a poor little thing all alone in the wild?

What a nice man you are. You must have a lot of money.

Why the hell have you chosen to build a house in my county?

The hands of the hard-working shall prevail.

- What's in the boxes? - I'd like to know too.

They came all the way from Mecklenburg.

I don't understand all the secrecy.

Are these all of my men?

I need more than that if the house is to be finished before autumn.

No energetic man with a life ahead of him...

...wants to work himself to death on the heath.

I need three times as many.

Then you'll have to find them in the neighbouring villages.

I have boils on my arse the size of swan eggs.

They don't like the road.

Besides, the forests are full of vagabonds.

Before I forget... 5 riksdalers.

As sheriff, I'll be paid for the work of getting everything on the list.

Plus hiring horses to take the shit to the arsehole of the world.

Sorry, Father.

Captain, can I show you something?

I think I may have a solution to your problem about workers.

You've no idea how happy I am that you've chosen our parish.

It's about time that God's light shone on the moor.

Come...

I believe I may have found a home for you.

Johannes Eriksen, an experienced farmer, and his wife Ann-Barbara.

It's illegal to hire people fleeing bondage.

They've escaped from a brutal master.

Eriksen can work hard and Ann-Barbara is a good housekeeper.

We can work for half the wage, Sir.

We only ask for a room so Ann-Barbara doesn't have to sleep with the men.

One room, two meals a day, no pay.

You won't get a better chance in your situation.

I'll be having important visitors when the house is finished.

I'll expect it to be maintained to a high standard.

Is that understood?

It will be fine.

You'll never be looked for on the moorland.

FOUR MONTHS LATER AT HALD MANOR

Well, Bondo...

I stand here like an idiot wasting the best season of the year.

Cheeks are burning... the flesh is willing.

Portraits with a bear are the fashion all over northern Europe, Mr de Schinkel.

Where is my cousin?

She is out training her horse.

She just has it running around on a lunge rope.

A Captain Kahlen is currently building a house on the moor.

"King's House" he calls it.

You said there'd be no more fools coming to the moor.

That it was only a matter of time before we could buy it all.

Kahlen?

Yes. Ludvig Kahlen.

Find out who he is.

Of course.

KING'S HOUSE

I've had better stew in the army.

If you'd bought a cow we'd have thicker milk.

Can't have a cow.

If I'm to keep the house in a high standard, I need a cow.

I've made a detailed account of my budget for this place.

If it showed a cow was needed there would be a cow.

Then it gets no better.

Everything should be in neat little rows.

The floor should be dust-free.

The food should sit perfectly in the centre of the plate.

He carries on like a fine gentleman.

But his clothes are tattered and his hands are horny.

He's odd.

The priest said we can trust him.

We can trust nobody.

We'll never get out of here without pay.

We'll only stay here for one season...

Until they've stopped looking for us.

One season at King's House.

Then we go to the coast.

I want to see the sea.

I want to see the sea.

Where are you going?

Out to our odd gentleman.

He shouldn't go out alone.

We need marl to do this.

We'll get clay from the sea.

The heather will be burned, the soil will be fertilised.

It'll take at least six months before anything can be grown.

May I ask what you plan to grow?

You are welcome to ask.

But you won't get an answer.

Come here!

Thanks for the goddamn chicken, Mister!

- What's going on? - It's the vagabonds.

What the hell are you doing?

Now all the vagabonds know that they can come here and steal without risk.

Why did you let her go?

You can't get too close to them. The devil protects them.

You saw how dark she was.

Stupid superstition. She is a beggar's child.

She was taken in the South, so is dark. Next time you stop her.

We should not be cursed by anyone. Try to stop her yourself.

Pack your things. You're finished here.

It's amazing what you're doing.

You already get a sense of life being out here.

Johannes.

Isn't that Preisler?

Johannes...

Would you be so kind as to see to my horse in the barn?

Captain Kahlen?

I am Major Preisler.

I am here for Frederik de Schinkel von Hald...

Owner of 130 properties and the district magistrate.

Mr de Schinkel asked me to invite you to dinner at the estate this evening.

I'd be honoured.

I hope you can dress differently.

I have my uniform.

One of Mr de Schinkel's bondmen left recently.

Rumour has it that he's still in the district.

Johannes Eriksen and his wife.

Know anything?

I have the men you see here.

Schinkel. That's who they've run away from?

The district big-wig, who I'm supposed to visit?

My uncle loved dogs.

He wrote in his will that Frederik was not to take down...

...a single portrait of a dog on the estate.

I think he was fonder of his dogs than his own children.

Edel Helene Leising...

Frederik's cousin.

Captain Ludvig Kahlen.

Are you related to the Norwegian Count Leising?

That is my father.

Do you you know a lot about Norwegian nobility?

No... Just what everyone knows. That your father is a close friend of the king.

Here he is.

Ludvig Kahlen... Welcome to Hald Manor.

- Mr Schinkel, thank you... - de Schinkel.

My father's name was Schinkel, but I changed it to "de Schinkel".

de Schinkel, sorry.

From gardener to decorated captain is an achievement.

It took 25 years as well.

25 years?

Do you know how long it takes for a nobleman to become a captain?

Six months.

You must have hated the powder-puffs who advanced before you...

...just because they had the right blood in their veins.

Those are the rules.