Acclaimed director Nicolas Winding Refn has developed a reputation for testosterone-boiling art cinema with his PUSHER trilogy and last year’s BRONSON. His latest offering provides no relief from this agenda. VALHALLA RISING, set in the 11th century, is the story of One-Eye (Mads Mikkelsen), a mute slave who escapes his Scottish masters with the questionable help of Norse pagans before setting sail with a ragtag team of crusaders into a Conrad-like heart of darkness.

Part AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD, the fleet of travellers journies through the fog for weeks before being spat out into a fresh water river of uncertain locale and menace. Off the map, nearing madness and either closing in on hell or Valhalla, the quest puts One Eye in the undesirable position of not only having to survive the brutal new land he’s stumbled upon, but having to confront his own soul in the process. An action film built mostly of stasis, VALHALLA RISING will defy your expectations of the genre and provide a hallucinatory alternative to the latest Hollywood popcorn piece.

TS