In Thomas Daneskov’s Wild Men (original title Vildmænd), Martin (Rasmus Bjerg) has lost his way. A family man with a wife and two daughters at home, Martin’s absconded to the craggy mountains of Norway, clan in Viking attire and armed with a makeshift bow and arrow. He plans to get back to his roots and live off the land like his hunter/gather ancestors of 3000 years ago but his aspirations are beyond the reach of his skillset. We’re witness to Martin’s plentiful limitations as he hunts a goat, striking it in the haunch from afar but unable to track the bloody trail to his would-be dinner. Left instead to smash and charbroil a small toad. The next scene he wretches up his amphibian meal, hunched over and helpless, into the icy river below.
