Anders Thomas Jensen’s bizarre familial comedy feature, Men & Chicken set to make its acclaimed North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, will be released in the U.S. via Drafthouse Films. Men & Chicken will open in a theatrical release across North America in 2016.
Written and directed by Jensen, described as one of Denmark’s most prolific cinematic voices (whose work includes the 1999 Oscar®-winning short film Election Night, plus scripts for the 2010 Academy-Award® Best Foreign Language Film winner In A Better World and Sony’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower), Men & Chicken is the story of two brothers who, through meeting their long-lost family, also discover a horrible truth about themselves. On full, carnivalesque display here are Jensen’s inimitable darkly comedic stylings, as can be seen in his earlier films Flickering Lights and The Green Butchers, both featuring star Mads Mikkelsen. Men & Chicken was recently announced to be on Denmark’s shortlist for the Best Foreign Language category at the 2016 Oscars as well as the Danish entry to the European Film Awards.
In his boldest role to date, Mikkelsen (“Hannibal,” Casino Royale, The Hunt) reunites with Jensen to deliver an unforgettable––and, for North American fans mostly familiar with his dramatic work, wholly unexpected––comic turn as bumbling and harelipped Elias, alongside the equally against-type David Dencik (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, both The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films) as his loathsome and harelipped brother Gabriel. Together, they venture to a sequestered island where they meet the harelipped Franz (Soren Malling, A Hijacking, Denmark’s “The Killing”), the harelipped Gregor (Nicolaj Lie Kaas, The Idiots, The Absent Ones) and the harelipped Josef (Nicholas Bro,Nymphomaniac, War Horse). What follows is a genre-wrenching spectacle that encapsulates all types of comedy, from grand slapstick to biting wit, coalescing in an astounding exploration of “Denmark’s most twisted family tree since Hamlet” (Variety).