This debut feature from director Jeanette Nordahl is an enthralling, brooding and utterly gripping thriller that packs a powerful emotional punch.

Following the death of her alcoholic mother, Ida (Sandra Kampp) is placed by social services with her aunt (Sidse Babette Knudsen) and her grown-up sons, a side of her family she barely knows. At the worst time in her life, Ida finds herself in a loving home welcomed with open arms but all is not what it seems.

Ida soon learns that her aunt’s nightclub, is a front for her true profession as a ruthless loan shark and her three sons, are her enforcers, collecting debts and dishing out beatings to those who don’t pay on time. Ida is encouraged to work in the family business but is this really what Ida wants? Is the safety and security of Bodil’s home worth what she’ll have to do to stay here? Kampp’s performance brings a chilling ambiguity, as she takes in the reality of her new life with a detached coolness. The push and pull of family is strong and loyalty is expected. When a routine collection goes horribly wrong, Ida finds herself caught between her new family on one side, and social services and the police on the other.

Reminiscent of David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom in its brutal depiction of the work of a crime family Wildland is a brutal, realistic crime thriller.

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