PUSHER

Year: 1996
USA: Magnolia Films
UK: Metrodome Group
Cast: Kim Bodnia, Zlakto Buric, Mads Mikkelsen, Laura Drasbaek, Slavco Labovic, Peter Andersson, Lisbeth Rasmussen, Vanja Bajicic, Levino Jensen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Bom, Michael Hasselflug, Jang Go Star, Jesper Lohmann, Steen Fridberg, Gordon Kennedy, Gyda Hansen, Kenneth Schultz, Coco C P Dalbert, Karsten Schrøder, Keith C Stanley, Lisa Lach-Nielsen, Thomas Aagren, Eva Nauman, Thomas Herschel, Kenneth Herschel, Gunner Clemann, Alex Nielsen, Laust Balskov, Kim Maali, Morten Pay, Per Leth, John Kalmar, Thor Nielsen, Evald, Jesper Staal
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Country: Denmark
Language: Danish (English subtitles)
USA: 105 mins
UK: 109 mins
UK Certificate: 18 for drugs, violence and coarse sexual language
USA Release Date: 18 August 2006 (Limited Release - New York)
UK DVD Release Date: 24 July 2000
USA DVD Release Date: tbc (The Pusher Trilogy)
UK DVD Release Date: 12 June 2006 (The Pusher Trilogy)
US Distributor


Synopsis

Writer and director Nicolas Winding Refn turned down a place at the prestigious National Danish Film School in order to make his 1996 feature film debut, PUSHER. This violent, edgy, yet moving cult classic established Refn as an uncompromising filmmaker of great talent and depth. Following his next two films, BLEEDER (1999), and FEAR X (2003), Refn returned to the Copenhagen underworld in 2004 with PUSHER II: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS, while 2005 saw the release of the 3rd instalment, PUSHER III: I'M THE ANGEL OF DEATH. All three PUSHER films display Refn effortlessly blending moody atmospherics and frenetic action, portraying his characters with a depth and confidence far belying his years. Though each film can be appreciated independently of the other three, Refn subtly interweaves these three tales so that a minor character in one film moves to the fore to become the central character of the next. The resulting trilogy stands as a masterful reinvention of international crime cinema, as poignantly human as it is brutally and viscerally realized.

PUSHER is the story of Frank (Kim Bodnia), a small-time drug dealer who is about to experience the worst week of his life. After a complicated heroin deal goes wrong and he loses both the money and the merchandise, Frank finds himself massively in debt to the Balkan drug baron Milo (Zlatko Buric).

The squeeze is on and as the week passes the pressure mounts, with Frank trying to repay the money in the face of Milo's increasing frustration and his own latent self-destructiveness. Come Friday, Saturday might never happen as Frank has 18 hours to come up with the cash . As Frank launches one last desperate push to raise the missing funds, it appears less and less likely he will manage to emerge from this hellish week unscathed...