A cross between Robin Hood and Braveheart, MICHAEL KOHLHAAS is a bleak, brooding and brutal tale of 16th century feudalism.
At his most enigmatic photogenic best, Mads Mikkelsen plays Michael Kohlhaas, an honest horse trader continually cheated by a corrupt and cruel aristocrat. When the equine entrepreneur confronts the cruel Count and campaigns for better conditions for the common man, an act of heinous criminality is committed against Kohlhaas that sets the horseman on a course of revenge and retribution.
Set in the Cevennes, a place that offers rock, nothing but rock, razor sharp shale, an austere Protestant enclave in south central France, MICHAEL KOLHAAS is an unremittingly desolate film, fixated on the landscape with long shots that linger with a languor more reminiscent of Scandinavian cinema.