Famous Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and director Nikolaj Arcel were visibly baffled during the Venice Film Festival after a reporter asked why there weren’t more black actors in the 18th-century drama.
“The Promised Land” is a historical drama focusing on the life of Ludvig Kahlen who arrived in Denmark to cultivate the land but quickly ran into trouble. One of the main actors is a black woman, a move done to represent historical accuracy.
But that wasn’t obvious to one reporter, who asked why the film wasn’t more diverse.