Pusher (film series)

The Pusher films by Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn illustrate and explore the criminal underworld of Copenhagen.

Films

Pusher (1996)

The first film follows Frank for a week, a mid-level drug dealer who becomes indebted to his supplier, Milo. It depicts his depravity and how his actions force him further and further out on thin ice while revealing the bittersweet relationship he has with his girlfriend, Vic.

The movie was a blockbuster, not only in Denmark, but internationally. It was also the movie that launched both Refn's and Mads Mikkelsen's careers.

Pusher II (2004)

The second film follows Frank's low-level criminal sidekick, Tonny. It illustrates how Tonny is rooted in an evil spiral of crime and drugs, his relationship towards his notorious, cynical father and how he adapts to the consequence of being a father himself.

Pusher 3 (2005)

The third film depicts a day in the life of Serbian drug lord Milo. Milo, who was a feared and respected man in the first two movies, has since aged. He does not have the same grip on the underworld that he used to and is now slowly losing the battle against a younger generation of immigrants, who now want a piece of the action. The film shows Milo's downfall and his desperate attempt to reclaim the throne.

Reviews

Nathan Lee of The New York Times said of the trilogy:

From the mean streets of Copenhagen—they evidently exist—comes the Pusher trilogy, a pungent dose of Denmark rot. Written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, this tough trio of underworld thrillers sticks so close to its rogues’ gallery of gangsters, suckers and murderous megalomaniacs that you can almost taste the hate and smell the stomach wounds. Given an appetite for grisly crime flicks, they make for a delectably nasty epic.

References