{ "id": "ep4f9h0hhm", "slug": "day-of-wrath", "title": "Day of Wrath", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s", "label": "Drama films 1940s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Western Europe · 1800 to 1945: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800", "label": "Western Europe · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Day of Wrath (Vredens dag) is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 Danish drama, also known as Vredens Dag, about Anne, a pastor's young wife accused of witchcraft in 1623 after loving her stepson. Shot under Nazi occupation, adapted from Wiers-Jenssens' play Anne Pedersdotter, it premiered 13 November 1943 and was read as an occupation allegory.", "snippet": "Day of Wrath (Vredens dag) is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 Danish drama, also known as Vredens Dag, about Anne, a pastor's young wife accused of witchcraft in 1623 after loving her stepson. Shot under Nazi occupation, adapted from Wiers-Jenssens' play Anne Pedersdotter, it premiered 13 November 1943 and was read as an occupation allegory.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s", "markdown": "# Day of Wrath\n\n**Day of Wrath** (Danish: *Vredens dag*) is a 1943 Danish black-and-white drama directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, about a young woman accused of witchcraft in a seventeenth-century Danish village. It was filmed during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, and Danish audiences received it as an allegory of the occupation, although Dreyer denied that it was made with reference to the Nazis.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath) • [2](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/5d6f7bc906953.pdf) The film was Dreyer's first feature in more than ten years, following *[Vampyr](https://www.edgepedia.org/vampyr)* (1932), and it is now counted among his major works alongside *Ordet* (1955) and *Gertrud* (1964).[3](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2008/cteq/day-of-wrath/) • [1](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and year | Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark, 1943; Danish premiere 13 November 1943[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566) |\n| Source | The play *Anne Pedersdotter* by Hans Wiers-Jenssens (1908), based on real sixteenth-century events in Bergen, Norway[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath) |\n| Setting | A Danish village in 1623, during the witch hunts[6](https://mk2films.com/en/film/day-of-wrath/) |\n| Principal cast | Thorkild Roose (Absalon Pederssøn), Lisbeth Movin (Anne), Sigrid Neiiendam (Merete), Preben Lerdorff Rye (Martin), Anna Svierkier (Herlofs Marte)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Karl Andersson; music Poul Schierbeck; editing Edith Schlüssel and Anne Marie Petersen; production A/S Palladium, producer Tage Nielsen[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566) |\n| Format | Black and white, Danish language; runtimes of 97 minutes (Criterion) and 100 minutes (mk2) appear in current catalogs[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath) • [6](https://mk2films.com/en/film/day-of-wrath/) |\n| Later recognition | London premiere 23 November 1946, the first Danish sound film shown there; not nominated for an Academy Award in 1949[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566) • [11](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1949) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and source\n\nThe story is set in 1623, in a Danish village living under a harsh religious orthodoxy in which suspected witches are condemned and burned. Pastor Absalon Pederssøn lives with his elderly mother Merete and his much younger second wife, Anne, who knows nothing of her origins and has never experienced love.[6](https://mk2films.com/en/film/day-of-wrath/) The film opens with the old herb woman Herlofs Marte, accused of witchcraft, seeking refuge in the rectory; Anne hesitates to hide her, and Marte is found and taken away, later burned at the stake.[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566) • [7](https://www.filmsite.org/dayofwrath.html)\n\n**The fatal entanglement.** Almost simultaneously, Absalon's son Martin returns home from his first marriage, and he and Anne fall in love.[6](https://mk2films.com/en/film/day-of-wrath/) Marte had threatened to reveal that Absalon once saved Anne's mother, herself accused of witchcraft, because of his interest in the young Anne.[7](https://www.filmsite.org/dayofwrath.html) When Absalon learns of the affair, he dies of a heart attack; Martin deserts Anne, and the villagers accuse her of having used witchcraft to cause his death and to ensnare her lover, a charge that condemns her to be burned.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath)\n\nThe screenplay by Dreyer, Mogens Skot-Hansen, and Poul Knudsen adapts the play *Anne Pedersdotter* by Hans Wiers-Jenssens, which the [Turner Classic Movies](https://www.edgepedia.org/turner-classic-movies) profile traces to real events in sixteenth-century Bergen, Norway.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath) The title comes from the medieval hymn *Dies irae*, the sequence of the Latin Requiem Mass about the day of judgment.[8](https://letterboxd.com/eyal_/film/day-of-wrath/)\n\n## Production\n\n*Day of Wrath* was Dreyer's first feature in over ten years. After *Vampyr* (1932) was poorly received in his own country, projects he initiated in France, England, and even Somalia fell through, and he returned to journalism before the prospect of filming *Anne Pedersdotter* brought him back to filmmaking.[3](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2008/cteq/day-of-wrath/) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath) The film was produced by the Danish company [Palladium](https://www.edgepedia.org/palladium), with Tage Nielsen as producer.[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566)\n\n**Casting and performance.** Dreyer cast Lisbeth Movin, then a relatively unknown stage and screen actress, as Anne because he \"fell in love with her eyes\"; her performance has been compared in intensity to Falconetti's in *The Passion of Joan of Arc* (1928).[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath) Anna Svierkier, who played Herlofs Marte, was nearly eighty years old at the time and was put through an arduous physical ordeal for the role.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath)\n\n## Wartime context and reception\n\nThe film premiered in Denmark on 13 November 1943, late in the year during what the Harvard Film Archive program notes call the blackest period of the Nazi occupation, and Danish audiences saw it as an allegory for the German occupation.[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566) • [2](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/5d6f7bc906953.pdf) Dreyer himself claimed the film was not made explicitly in reference to the Nazis, but critics have read its story of persecution, torture, and enforced morality as a parallel to the occupation, during which Jews in Denmark were targeted, deported, or captured.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/day_of_wrath_1948) • [7](https://www.filmsite.org/dayofwrath.html)\n\nThe film's reception at home was poor: according to the TCM profile, Danish critics received it even worse than they had received *Vampyr*, and it was released at a time when wartime conditions severely limited theatrical distribution.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath) Its standing recovered over time. It premiered in London on 23 November 1946 as the first Danish sound film shown there, was not nominated for an Academy Award in 1949, and entered the Criterion Collection as spine #125.[4](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566) • [1](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath) • [11](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1949) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 100% Tomatometer rating from 26 reviews.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/day_of_wrath_1948)\n\n## Style and place in Dreyer's work\n\nDreyer made only four features after *Vampyr*, and three of them, *Day of Wrath*, *Ordet*, and *Gertrud*, form a late-career run in which he refined a style of long takes, deliberate movement, severe compositions, and spare dialogue.[8](https://letterboxd.com/eyal_/film/day-of-wrath/) Karl Andersson's cinematography draws on [Dutch Golden Age painting](https://www.edgepedia.org/dutch-golden-age-painting), a comparison nearly every writer on the film makes, with faces lit in candlelight against deep blacks.[8](https://letterboxd.com/eyal_/film/day-of-wrath/) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/day_of_wrath_1948) The film's slowness is part of its method: characters move and speak with a formal, stagey precision, and the film never shows supernatural events directly, so that small disturbances, a gust of wind or a guttering candle, carry the weight of omens.[10](https://www.perisphere.org/2026/09/26/the-fierce-and-downcast-eyes-of-day-of-wrath/) • [8](https://letterboxd.com/eyal_/film/day-of-wrath/)\n\nThematically, the film examines religious orthodoxy as a source of fear and inter-family strife, and it dramatizes how an accusation alone can destroy a woman, without a single speech about it.[8](https://letterboxd.com/eyal_/film/day-of-wrath/) Dreyer's spare, spiritually focused approach has been described as echoed in the films of [Ingmar Bergman](https://www.edgepedia.org/ingmar-bergman), Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky, and [Lars von Trier](https://www.edgepedia.org/lars-von-trier).[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Day of Wrath (1943), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/442-day-of-wrath)\n2. [Vredens Dag program note, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/5d6f7bc906953.pdf)\n3. [Day of Wrath, Martyn Bamber, Senses of Cinema, May 2008](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2008/cteq/day-of-wrath/)\n4. [Vredens dag (1943), danskefilm.dk](https://www2.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=566)\n5. [Day of Wrath, Jeff Stafford, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/81388/day-of-wrath)\n6. [Day of Wrath, mk2 Films catalog](https://mk2films.com/en/film/day-of-wrath/)\n7. [Day of Wrath (1943), Filmsite, Tim Dirks](https://www.filmsite.org/dayofwrath.html)\n8. [Day of Wrath review, Eyal Keidar, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/eyal_/film/day-of-wrath/)\n9. [Day of Wrath (1943), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/day_of_wrath_1948)\n10. [The Fierce and Downcast Eyes of Day of Wrath, Perisphere](https://www.perisphere.org/2026/09/26/the-fierce-and-downcast-eyes-of-day-of-wrath/)\n11. [oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1949)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Day of Wrath\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Day of Wrath](https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath](https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Day of Wrath\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/day-of-wrath. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Day of Wrath is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 Danish drama, also known as Vredens Dag, about Anne, a pastor's young wife accused of witchcraft in 1623 after loving her stepson." }