Pusher (1996)
An unsettling, electrifying feature debut widely considered to be the first Danish gangster film
7.2
Movie
Denmark
Danish, Serbian, Swedish
Action, Crime, Drama
1996
NICOLAS WINDING REFN
Gordon Kennedy, Gyda Hansen, Jesper Lohmann
110 min
Appears on
Read also
7.2
The Staff
TLDR
You know how organized crime seemed so glamorous with all those gangster thrillers? Pusher shows how the whole shebang really is– terribly exhausting.
What it's about
After a police raid leaves him with a botched deal and none of the heroin, low-level Copenhagen drug dealer Frank grows desperate as he has to find a way to repay the drug lord he got his stash from.
The take
Films about drug dealing aren't particularly new, but the way Pusher delves into their lives feels different– more realistic than glamorous, somewhat like a guerrilla documentary, with the handheld camera as a silent, unnamed witness. As the camera follows low-level dealer Frank through the course of a week, Kim Bodnia skillfully garners empathy with the way he holds himself through the pressure, and does the opposite when he does the same wrongs that were done to him. The story itself may be simple, but writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn made his mark through this debut, inadvertently creating a franchise and influencing Danish cinema.
What stands out
This was Mads Mikkelsen's film debut, and even then he had the presence and an intriguing visage that made him memorable.
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