02/09/2025 - VENICE 2025: The filmmaker explains how, for his new feature, he tried to return to some basics in his storytelling

(© Andrea Avezzù/La Biennale di Venezia - Foto ASAC)

Cherished and celebrated for his screenplays for directors like Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Lone Scherfig, Kristian Levring and especially Susanne Bier, for whom he’s written six films, including the Oscar winner In a Better World [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Anders Thomas Jensen is himself an accomplished Danish filmmaker, narrating darkly bizarre tales of shady and often criminal characters in quaint Scandinavian surroundings. His sixth directorial outing, The Last Viking [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
film profile], is playing out of competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and offers the international audience a relatively rare glimpse of his distinct auteurship.

Cineuropa: This year, it’s 25 years since your directorial feature debut, Flickering Lights, became an instant hit with the Danish audience, who’ve been returning in their droves ever since. Flickering Lights also shares some similarities with The Last Viking; the two films could almost be called companion pieces.
Anders Thomas Jensen: That makes me happy to hear. I’ve tried to return to some basics in my storytelling, especially after Riders of Justice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anders Thomas Jensen
film profile], with its elaborately devised twists. During the cutting of The Last Viking, my editor asked me about the centrepiece of the story, and I actually don’t think there is one. And that loose structure is something I’ve consciously striven for. There are definitely similarities with Flickering Lights, including the flashbacks from the main characters’ childhoods. But I’d say that The Last Viking is way darker in its psychology. In that respect, I’ve grown older and more experienced with time.

There should be several critics out there keen to sink their teeth into your work over the last quarter of a century, defining your auteurship. You’ve been called a true auteur director more than once, with a universe all of your own. Would you agree, and how do you feel about it?
Yes, I’d agree with that. But mind you, it’s just something I do without trying. There’ve been times when I’ve tried to wriggle out of it, but for some reason, I wind up doing the same thing, using a signature I’m not aware of, and perhaps shouldn’t be aware of. It could also be seen as a bit boring, but there’s also something safe and nice and interesting to it, and I say this not without pride.

Do you even at times feel pressured into delivering this particular style; almost like an obligation or contract with your audience?
No. Because I really try, at times, to move away from it. And still… I set out to make Riders of Justice as 50% Susanne Bier and 50% me. Still, it wound up being mainly me. With The Last Viking, I’ve gone 180 degrees in the other direction and just embraced all that is me. I have a tale of some tragic figures who find a fellowship, which is the tale I cherish most of all.

You also return to a certain stock company of actors. Twenty-five years ago, many were relative newcomers in their late twenties or early thirties. Today, many are international success stories. Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sofie Gråbøl and Mads Mikkelsen were all part of Flickering Lights, and they return in The Last Viking. Nicolas Bro appeared in your Oscar-winning short Election Night in 1999. Your skills as a writer and image-maker are rightly acclaimed, but what about your role as an actor’s director?
It’s not often talked about, actually. And that’s partly my own fault for calling myself a scriptwriter, which is also basically true. To some extent, I started directing because there were scripts I’d written that no one else wanted to shoot, so I had to do it myself. That’s certainly not the case today, of course. As for my “stock company”, we’ve known each other inside out since way back, and we meet up every five years for our own summer camp, where we try to challenge ourselves a little more each time. For example, Mads Mikkelsen’s part in this film is quite demanding, which he certainly felt himself when taking it on, and I think very few people could pull it off. Another side to it is the commercial potential these people give to the films; they’re almost like a “rat pack”, and the audience really likes watching them. A name like Mads’ really does wonders for the financing. That’s a factor worth mentioning.

As for your own name in the international film-festival arena, it’s usually been “hidden” behind a director. This time, you’re the captain, fittingly, on this Viking ship. Do you see your own movies as festival films?
I don’t, that’s the thing. We have this joke that I’m the only Danish director making films with Mads Mikkelsen who won’t get Oscar-nominated. But perhaps there’s a serious tone here that presses some buttons. And I enjoy it greatly; coming to Venice is a lovely feeling.