🎬 Day of Wrath (1943)

Carl Th. Dreyer | 1943 | Denmark | 97’ | EN subtitles

Legendary Danish filmmaker’s take on the age of witch hunts and burning stakes. Here, Carl Th. Dreyer discusses themes of belief, destiny, ostracism, and superstition. In this grim production, Dreyer presents a story of Anna, a young woman whose mother was accused of witchcraft. She believes that this fate is also bound to happen to her. She begins to spiral as she develops love for her husband’s son from his first marriage.

This can be considered the third film of Carl Th. Dreyer, which stirs up the dilemma of women martyred by the Inquisition. Previously, this subject was also included in his Leaves from Satan’s Book (1920) and in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). The film is an accusation towards the social system that enslaves the individual, which is engulfed in obsession with sin, suspicion and hatred.

Unrushed, elegant exploration of the psychological backbone of the characters whose core value seems to be dogged determination.