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• Cinando
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• Lumiere
• Admissions in 3 European countries

Year of production : 2014

Director(s) : Henrik Ruben GENZ
Writer(s) : Erlend LOE
Cast : Jakob OFTEBRO, Martin BUCH

Producer(s) : Lars RAHBEK (Nimbus Film), Bo EHRHARDT (Nimbus Film)

Copenhagen, autumn 1720. Vice admiral Peter Wessel Tordenskjold, hero of the Great Northern War, is undergoing an existential crisis. War has come to an end and the suddenly unemployed naval hero tries to tackle life on land bedding endless numbers of loose women.

Tordenskjold’s manservant Christian Kold opines that after so many years in service of the Danish-Norwegian Twin Kingdom his master should settle down learning to appreciate the finer things in life such as marriage and children. Kold’s aspiration makes Tordenskjold uncomfortable. He would much rather have a dog. This, Kold tells him, he can forget about! Master and servant bicker like an old married couple.

Fearing for his master’s sanity, Kold persuades Tordenskjold to see Doctor Mabuse, an 18th century precursor to Freud. While Doctor Mabuse tries to bolster the naval hero’s ailing ego, Kold gets his master a serious date. Miss Norris is not only strikingly beautiful, but also heiress to an immense fortune. Kold urges his master to go on a trip to Hanover to court Miss Norris. Initially reluctant, Tordenskjold eventually agrees.

Tordenskjold and Kold embark on a freewheeling road trip towards Northern Germany. At every stop Tordenskjold is a star attraction over and over recounting his famous victories to awestruck audiences. It is almost as if he is a rock star on tour. The triumphant tour, however keeps veering off course, landing Tordenskjold in trouble with Kold having to clean up his mess. Tordenskjold parties, drinks, duels, seduces, deflowers and provokes.

At the recently conquered Gottorp Castle on the border of Germany Tordenskjold meets with King Frederik IV to obtain a travel pass. All hopes of the king’s best man are thwarted when Tordenskjold understands that there is not a single war in sight. No more detours, no possibility of returning to sea. It’s Miss Norris or nothing.

The journey to Hanover thus continues. Visiting Captain Ployart in Hamburg Tordenskjold realizes that not everyone is an admiring friend. He leaves utterly humiliated by his erstwhile colleague and Ployart’s sister Leonora. Leonora is the first woman Tordenskjold has ever failed to seduce.

Arriving in Hanover Tordenskjold gets into big trouble at a lavish party at the house of Baron and Baronesse von Görtz. Tordenskjold gets into a dramatic fight with a former Swedish archenemy seemingly bent on revenge. It is as if everyone is out to get Tordenskjold. Kold realizes that he must now do his very best to try and save Tordenskjold - his master and the man he by and by is getting to consider his very best and possibly only friend.