This is another film that was released in the UK in 2022 when cinema audiences were only just starting to recover from COVID. Also it was a Signature release and that company tends to emphasise VOD rather than cinemas (although in this case the release was supported by the BFI from Lottery funding). It’s not a surprise that I missed it and when I came across it on BFI Player I mistakenly thought I’d already seen it. Now, I’m glad I took a punt on it because I found it enjoyable to watch and an interesting variation on a familiar central theme.

Martin in the full glory of his fur coat.

Wild Men is a wholly Danish production, set in Norway with dialogue in Danish, Norwegian and a few lines of English. The familiar central theme is that of a forty-something man facing the boredom and stifling culture of the work place and seeking some kind of way out, if only for a short time. Martin (Rasmus Bjerg) has opted to tell his wife that he was going on a work trip but instead has travelled to Norway and set himself up in a tent in the mountains. Ten days in he is now kitted out in a coat made from the skins of the animals he has presumably killed for food after making a bow and several arrows. On this day, however, the film narrative begins when he fails to catch a wild goat and instead descends to a petrol station and attempts to barter his axe and bow for a basketful full of groceries. The encounter is in one sense successful (i.e. he gets some food without paying for it) but alerts the local police to his presence in the hills. Soon after he will meet Musa, a man injured in a car’s argument with a moose. Musa (Zaki Youssef) was travelling with two others and he has escaped the wreck with a bagful of money. So both Rasmus and Musa are of interest to the local police. This police trio includes two officers who are not among Norway’s finest in terms of initiative and bravery but their boss Øyvind (Bjørn Sundquist, a veteran Norwegian actor) is made of sterner stuff. Later in the narrative Martin’s wife Anne (Sofie Gråbøl) turns up with her two young daughters, having finally discovered Martin’s whereabouts.

Martin and Musa, perhaps surprisingly, get on well together

I won’t spoil the plot but it is fairly conventional with just an occasional twist. The film is categorised as a ‘dark comedy’ and ‘adventure’. I found it amusing in parts and an effective satire on ideas about masculinity. It’s successful, I think, for two reasons – the performances of the three central male characters – Martin, Musa and Øyvind and the glorious scenery photographed by Jonatan Rolf Mose in 2.35:1, ‘Scope. Each of the three principals has a back story which emerges slowly. There is some violence in the story and indeed a trio of people appear to die but I don’t think this undermines the satire. Martin is in several ways a complex character. He does seem to know something about living in the wild and there is an interesting development when he is taken to a ‘Viking Village’ which is presented as ‘authentic’ but which seems to be mainly a tourist trap Martin quickly exposes.

Øyvind examines the aftermath of the car and moose confrontation – a major health hazard in Norway and Sweden

I’ve read a few of the reviews of the film which are ‘mixed’ but generally positive. One suggests that the film follows Another Round (Denmark-Sweden-Netherlands 2020) the Mads Mikkelsen awards winner in which another Martin uses alcohol to help him in another form of ‘mid-life crisis’. I confess with Wild Men that at times I thought I was watching a Norwegian film and I began to try to remember some of the oddball Norwegian films I’d seen. I think this means that to this Anglo viewer there is a general idea about Nordic comedy dramas. The only flaw I could find in the film co-written and directed by Thomas Dasenkov is that Sophie Gråbøl (well-known outside Denmark for the three series of The Killing) is rather wasted with only a few scenes. But I would still recommend Wild Men as well worth your time.