Pelle the Conqueror   

By Gary S. Dalkin

Pelle the Conqueror is a Scandinavian drama which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film and a Best Actor nomination for Max (The Exorcist) Von Sydow. Set at the end of the 19th century, it tells of a widowed Swedish farmer who goes looking for a better life in Denmark with his young son, Pelle (a fine Pelle Hvenegaard). Much like Life is Beautiful (1998) the heart of the film is the bond between father and son and their dreams for a better world. Although the photography brings an austere beauty to the bleak coastlands of Denmark, the story, a 150-minute intimate epic, is intense and harrowing; the antithesis of the feel-good father-son relationship of a movie like Billy Elliot.

Academy Awards

Pelle the Conqueror received an Academy Award for Foreign Film. Pelle the Conqueror also received an Academy Awards nomination for Actor (Max von Sydow).

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