Darkland

In Copenhagen, the Iraqi surgeon Dr. Zaid (Dar Salim) lives a comfortable life with his pregnant wife Stine (Stine Fischer Christensen) in a fancy apartment. One night, while celebrating with friends the near end of the pregnancy period, his twenty-year old junkie brother Yasin (Anis Alobaidi) surprisingly arrives and asks for a large amount of money. Zaid refuses and soon Yasin is found beaten to death. Feeling guilty for the death of Yasin, Zaid goes to the precinct and finds belittle efforts from the detective in charge of investigating the murder case. Soon Zaid, who is black belt in kickboxing, returns to the training in the garage of a friend. He wears black, paints his motorcycle black and drives during the night through the underworld of Copenhagen seeking revenge for his brother. But he pays a high cost for his acts.

"Underverden", a.k.a. "Darkland", is a Danish action-thriller with a reasonable story of revenge but very entertaining like most films of this genre. The plot has good points, showing the dark side of Copenhagen, and the muslin community. But it is hard to believe that a surgeon with solid career and marriage throw thirty years of life in Denmark away to revenge the death of his junkie brother and with his family, friends and himself paying such high cost. Anyway, it is worthwhile watching this film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Guerreiro da Escuridão" ("Darkness Warrior")

Director and Writer " Fenar Ahmed" have made a Clever , Solide Action, Dark Thrill and a pinch Drama. Great Work!

7,3/10 ;)

Darkland follows the rules of a classic Scandinavian thriller. The atmosphere is oppressive thanks to the acting of the main character and due to the fact that most of the scenes take place at night.

The screenplay is pretty straightforward and without any major surprise but there is still a lot of suspense. We are waiting to see what Zaid is going to do next. This movie also raises interesting questions about ethnicity and one's integration into a different country and culture.

THOROUGHLY enjoyed this movie. For me it wasn't about the "predictability" of the film.... nor was it about the "modern-day revenge" theme as indicated by others.

For me it was all about the back-story.... the story behind the apparent tale. oh yeah.... very current... and very valid in today's society....

In the intro, a guy talks another into robbing a bank. Just the robber is about to walk into the bank there's a car crash. Never mind. He goes ahead with the robbery. Cops show up and chase him. We don't know what happens next.

An Iraqi heart surgeon in Denmark is told that his brother has just been wheeled into the morgue. It's the bank robber. Now the good doctor starts investigating since the cops can't do much. It's not like the bad guys will volunteer any info. The doc is befriended by some low-level thug who tells him that his brother worked for some drug dealer named Branco. Doc pays him a visit and gets beat up and nearly shot. So he does the logical thing--start working out, train boxing, injecting some substance while he continues to investigate who the killer of his brother is, never mind that his Danish wife is heavily pregnant.

He does find out who is behind the murder, some guy name Semion who surprise...surprise runs some MMA fight club. As the doc plans his revenge, things don't quite turn out as smoothly as planned but eventually he confronts Branco and then Semion.

Darkland is one long, slow, overstylized...action thriller I guess, where the tedious pace completely annuls the action and the thrills. But for an European/Scandinavian movie this is fast-paced and action-packed. I didn't buy for a second the good doc's transformation into Rocky, Rambo and the Energizer bunny. Neither did I sympathize with this guy at any moment. As usual, the bad guys are far more charismatic than this lame bad hero. Direction isn't all that good, it is what gets in the way of the story's potential. While not original, the story isn't bad. But they could have done more with the whole Muslim minority in Denmark thing. There are 3 interesting things in the script. At some point the Doc has some strong words with his father, he points out that they've lived in Denmark for 30 years but he cares more about Iraq and has done nothing there but sit on the couch, never got a job, and didn't have a clue that the younger son was into bad stuff. Then Semion in turn tells the doc that it is he who has been lifting his community and helping those in need while the Doc fled to the "white world" and cares nothing for his people. The doc tells Branco that having children doesn't make a parent, something that later will turn back on him. But aside from that, things are quite superficial. Darkland could have been so much more but it unfortunately is a failure of a movie.