Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

We start the season with a period love affair, but one which is laced with the political arguments of its time. The young English princess Caroline (Alicia Vikander) was sent to Denmark in 1766 to forge the alliance of the two states by marrying the insane King Christian (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard).

This might have been a footnote in history but for the arrival of the German doctor Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) as the King’s physician. Struensee was a political radical who set about influencing the King, attempting to bring in Enlightenment policies to a reactionary court - before the French Revolution remember - whilst having an affair with the Queen at the same time.

Nikolaj Arcel (‘The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo’) concentrates on the characters more than the politics, giving us a film about three strong characters caught up together, but showing a little known period in history where progress fought reaction much as in the Middle East today.