A Fortunate Man
A Fortunate Man is a 2018 Danish drama film directed by Bille August. In August 2018, it was one of three films shortlisted to be the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. The film is based on the eight-volume novel (originally translated into English as Lucky Per, but more recently and more precisely as "A Fortunate Man" - the Danish word 'lykke' does not translate simply as "luck") - by Danish Nobel Prize-winning author Henrik Pontoppidan and published between 1898 and 1904. The film's title comes from the 2018 translation by Paul Larkin – A Fortunate Man, published by Museum Tusculanum Press – and the film was released on American Netflix streaming on 19 April 2019.
Plot
The film is set in the late 19th century when the main character Peter Sidenius gets accepted to study engineering at a university. He leaves rural Jutland for Copenhagen and breaks ties with his overbearing, pious father and Christian, more specifically calvinist background. He hates his father and he rejects a gift of his father's pocket watch. The self-confident Peter, free of family and Christian religion, is poor but studies hard. He befriends a waitress who teaches him the ways of the city and introduces him to the world of sex but she is dismissed on his rise up in social status.
Cast
- Allan Arnby
- Anders Hove
- Anja Owe
- Benjamin Kitter
- Carsten Kressner
- Claus Flygare
- Elsebeth Steentoft
- Esben Smed
- Finn Nielsen
- Hans Dueholm
- Hans Holtegaard
- Jens Albinus
- Jesper Ole Feit Andersen
- Johannes Nymark
- Jonas Munck Hansen
- Julie Christiansen
- Karl Fischer
- Katrine Greis-Rosenthal
- Laura Kjær
- Mette Munk Plum
- Mikael Holst Nørlund
- Mikkel Hilgart
- Morten Hauch-Fausbøll
- Nicolai Dahl Hamilton
- Ole Lemmeke
- Paul Hüttel
- Per Tofte Nielsen
- Peter Hald
- Petrine Agger
- Rasmus Bjerg
- Sara Viktoria Bjerregaard Christensen
- Steffen Rode
- Tammi Øst
- Tommy Kenter