Evening Land

Aftenlandet

One of Peter Watkins’ most neglected works delivers an unsettlingly plausible vision of political crisis in modern Europe.

  • Director

    Peter Watkins

  • With

    Bent Andersen, Kai Shøning Andersen, Mogens Andersen, Oluf Andersen

  • Denmark 1976. 110min

  • Video

  • English subtitles

Prophetic in its depiction of surveillance culture and the erosion of civil liberties, Watkins’ drama constructs a portrait of Denmark’s ‘model society’ in crisis during a NATO summit that is overshadowed by strikes in a Copenhagen shipyard, terrorism and mounting social unrest. Blending staged drama with the texture and immediacy of television reportage, the film follows the state’s increasingly authoritarian response to dissent.

James Bell