10 Best Movies Set in or About Denmark

10 Movies Set in or About Denmark

Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Denmark.

1. 

   1. Hamlet

   1996

   Kenneth Branagh's full-length, lavishly staged version of Shakespeare's tragedy follows the Prince of Denmark home to find his father dead and his uncle on the throne, as grief curdles into a deadly reckoning.

2. 

   2. Hamlet

   1948

   Laurence Olivier's acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare follows the brooding Danish prince who, learning his father was murdered by his uncle, is torn between vengeance and paralyzing doubt. An Oscar-winning classic.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: A major adaptation of Shakespeare's Denmark-set royal tragedy.

3. 

   3. The Word

   Ordet · 1943

   A Swedish version of Kaj Munk's play about a devout farm family whose faith is tested by tragedy and by a son believed to be mad — later famously filmed by Dreyer in Denmark. A drama of faith and miracle.

4. 

   4. Hamlet

   1990

   Franco Zeffirelli's vigorous adaptation follows the Danish prince who discovers his uncle murdered his father to seize the crown, and plots a revenge that consumes the court. A robust take on Shakespeare's tragedy.

5. 

   5. King in Shadow

   Herrscher ohne Krone · 1957

   This historical drama recounts the rise and fall of Johann Friedrich Struensee, the court physician to Denmark's mad king who gained enormous influence and became entangled with the young queen. A tale of power and doomed love.

6. 

   6. Dreaming of Rita

   Drömmen om Rita · 1993

   After his wife's death, a man estranged from his grown daughter begs her to drive him to Denmark to find the woman he loved and lost thirty years before, and the reluctant road trip forces the two to confront each other. A Swedish road-movie drama.

7. 

   7. The Blonde in the Blue Movie

   Il vichingo venuto dal sud · 1971

   An uptight Sicilian eager to prove he is a modern man is posted to sexually liberated Denmark, where he throws himself into the free-love lifestyle — with farcical results. A bawdy Italian sex comedy.

8. 

   8. Louis-Ferdinand Céline

   2016

   In 1948, the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline lives in bitter exile in Denmark, accused of collaboration with the Nazis, alongside his wife and his beloved cat, when a young admirer arrives to draw out his story. A prickly literary drama.

9. 

   9. Ophelia

   2018

   This retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy shifts the perspective to Ophelia, a spirited lady-in-waiting whose secret love for Prince Hamlet draws her into the deadly intrigues of the Danish court. A lush feminist reimagining.

10. 

    10. The Love of a Queen

    Die Liebe einer Königin · 1923

    In 1766, a young English princess is married off to the mentally unstable king of Denmark and, in her loneliness, is drawn to the court physician who begins to wield real power — a doomed romance at the heart of a royal scandal. A silent historical drama.