{ "id": "eprwrhvdbk", "slug": "ordet", "title": "Ordet", "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.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "label": "Films based on stage plays", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Films based on stage plays", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "label": "Films based on stage plays", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Ordet (The Word) is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1955 Danish drama, adapted from Kaj Munk's 1932 play, about a West Jutland farming family divided by faith, ending in a resurrection miracle; Golden Lion winner.", "snippet": "Ordet (The Word) is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1955 Danish drama, adapted from Kaj Munk's 1932 play, about a West Jutland farming family divided by faith, ending in a resurrection miracle; Golden Lion winner.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.stage-play-adaptations", "markdown": "# Ordet\n\n**Ordet** (Danish for \"The Word\") is a 1955 Danish black-and-white drama directed and written by Carl Theodor Dreyer, adapted from [Kaj Munk](https://www.edgepedia.org/kaj-munk)'s 1932 play of the same name. Produced by [Palladium](https://www.edgepedia.org/palladium) and released in Denmark on 10 January 1955, it follows a West Jutland farming family divided by faith and ends with a resurrection miracle, and it is often voted one of the greatest films of all time.[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ordet) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/ordet-carl-theodor-dreyer)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Premiere | 10 January 1955, Denmark; production Palladium (Copenhagen), black and white, 35 mm[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ordet) |\n| Running time | Reported as 124 minutes (danskefilm.dk), 125 minutes (Criterion), and 126 minutes (BFI); the sources disagree[3](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208) • [4](https://www.criterion.com/films/441) • [5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) |\n| Source | Play *Ordet* (1932) by Kaj Munk, a Lutheran pastor and playwright[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) |\n| Style | Long, uninterrupted takes; the 124-minute running time contains only 114 shots[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) |\n| Awards | Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival 1955; Golden Globe for best foreign film; Bodil Award for best Danish film[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-danish-films) • [7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14416303) |\n| Dreyer's career | The only film he directed between *Two People* (1945) and *Gertrud* (1964), and the only one of his films that was also a commercial success[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) • [3](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208) |\n| Standing | Ranked =48 in the 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll and =30 in the directors' poll[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and themes\n\nThe film is set at Borgensgaard, a homestead in West Jutland belonging to Morten Borgen (Henrik Malberg), the region's largest landowner and a follower of the Grundtvigian movement (Danish folk-minded Lutheran revival, joyful church movement), one of two rival Christian factions in the district. Dreyer called the Grundtvigians the \"Glad Christians\" and their opponents, the Inner Mission led by Peter the Tailor (Ejner Federspiel), \"the sour-faced ones\".[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/ordet-carl-theodor-dreyer) • [8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/sight%20and%20sound%20greatest%20films%20of%20all%20time%202022%3Cbr%3E48%3D/2023/02/10/ordet/)\n\nMorten's three sons hold widely different beliefs. The eldest, Mikkel (Emil Hass Christensen), has lost his faith, though he is happily married to Inger (Birgitte Federspiel). The middle son, Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye), has had a mental breakdown and believes he is Jesus. The youngest, Anders (Cay Kristiansen), loves Anne (Gerda Nielsen), the daughter of the Inner Mission leader, a match the two households' religious hostility blocks.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/441) • [5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet)\n\nThe crisis comes when Inger dies in childbirth. Her eight-year-old daughter asks Johannes to wake her mother, and the child's simple faith becomes the vehicle for the miracle that ends the film and makes the denominational quarrels irrelevant.[9](https://kino.dk/film/ordet-1955)\n\nDreyer treats both sects critically: the local pastor included, nearly everyone is shown as lacking true faith, and only the mad Johannes and Mikkel's young daughter have conviction behind their words. Dreyer said that \"the best believers are the child and the deranged person, since their minds are not rational and limited by proof-positive facts like ours.\"[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/ordet-carl-theodor-dreyer) The film also insists on the body as well as the soul: Mikkel declares his love for his wife's body, and the ending arrives only after what one critic calls one of the fleshiest kisses on screen.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/ordet-carl-theodor-dreyer)\n\n## Production\n\nDreyer saw Munk's play, subtitled \"Legend of Today\", at the Betty Nansen Theatre in Copenhagen in 1932 while working as a dramatic critic, and wanted to film it from that moment. In the 21 years before he did so he directed only two features, *Day of Wrath* (1943) and *Two People* (1945).[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/sight%20and%20sound%20greatest%20films%20of%20all%20time%202022%3Cbr%3E48%3D/2023/02/10/ordet/) The BFI describes the film as a stylistic trial for Dreyer's unrealized project on the life of Jesus, made to test whether he could make an on-screen miracle believable.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/ordet-carl-theodor-dreyer) • [10](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-about-christianity)\n\n**Location shooting.** The planned two-and-a-half-month shoot began on the west Jutland coast, with exteriors filmed from 15 July to 13 August 1954 near Vedersø, Munk's own parish. Local farmers and fishermen appeared as extras, furniture for the sets was lent by residents, and the crew lodged at Hotel Vedersø Klit. The farm Thimgaard in Thim stood in for Borgensgaard, Hee Church served as the parish church, and a scene at Madum Church had to be attempted four times, each time defeated by cloud cover after 100 geese had been trucked to the location.[3](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208)\n\nDreyer, a famously meticulous director, consulted the Committee for Folk Dialects to ensure correct Jutlandic pronunciation; the committee assigned the young scholar Sven Poulsen to review every line of dialogue with the cast.[3](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208) The cinematographer was Henning Bendtsen, then 29, who later said discovering what Dreyer wanted initially proved a struggle; the music was by Poul Schierbeck, the production design by Erik Aaes, and the editing by Edith Schlüssel.[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/a-z-carl-theodor-dreyer) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ordet)\n\n## Style\n\nWith *Gertrud*, *Ordet* represents the culmination of Dreyer's controlled visual style of long, uninterrupted takes, in which one shot often covers an entire sequence; the 124-minute running time holds only 114 shots. The long takes were combined with an arc-and-pan camera movement that let Dreyer keep his distance from the actors.[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) • [12](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-carl-dreyer) Much of the drama unfolds in spacious interior sets built to leave room for contemplation, punctuated by sequences in the open West Jutland landscape.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-danish-films)\n\n## The play's author\n\nKaj Munk (1898–1944) was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor at Vedersø, the parish where the film's exteriors were shot. He resisted the Nazi occupation of Denmark, declaring \"By our death we shall conquer. We must obey God before man,\" and was murdered by a Nazi group on the night of 5 January 1944 at Hørbylunde Bakke near Silkeborg. Dreyer's film, made a decade after the playwright's death, helped make Munk better known after the war.[8](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/sight%20and%20sound%20greatest%20films%20of%20all%20time%202022%3Cbr%3E48%3D/2023/02/10/ordet/) • [13](https://www.kajmunk.aau.dk/andre-resurser/om-munk)\n\n## Reception and standing\n\n*Ordet* received a strong critical reception and was the only one of Dreyer's films that was also a commercial success.[3](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208) It won the [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion) at the 1955 [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival), awards at the Edinburgh and Finnish festivals, a Golden Globe for best foreign film, and the Bodil Award for best Danish film, with an additional Bodil for Emil Hass Christensen's lead performance.[7](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14416303) • [3](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208) • [6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-danish-films)\n\nIn the Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll it ranked =48 among critics and =30 among directors in 2022, with voters including Martin Scorsese and [Alejandro González Iñárritu](https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu).[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet) The Criterion Collection released it on home video as spine #126, and the Danish Film Institute restored the film; a 4K restoration received a theatrical re-release in France in 2022.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/441) • [14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048452/companycredits/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Ordet (The Word), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/ordet)\n2. [Ordet at 70: the humanity behind one of cinema's supreme spiritual achievements, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/ordet-carl-theodor-dreyer)\n3. [Ordet (1955), danskefilm.dk](https://www.danskefilm.dk/film.php?id=208)\n4. [Ordet, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/441)\n5. [Ordet (1955), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet)\n6. [10 great Danish films, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-danish-films)\n7. [Visions and Victims: Art Melodrama in the Films of Carl Th. Dreyer, JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.14416303)\n8. [Ordet, BFI Southbank programme notes (Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/sight%20and%20sound%20greatest%20films%20of%20all%20time%202022%3Cbr%3E48%3D/2023/02/10/ordet/)\n9. [Ordet (1955), kino.dk](https://kino.dk/film/ordet-1955)\n10. [10 great films about Christianity, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-about-christianity)\n11. [The A-Z of Carl Theodor Dreyer, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/a-z-carl-theodor-dreyer)\n12. [Where to begin with Carl Dreyer, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-carl-dreyer)\n13. [Om Munk, Kaj Munk Forskningscentret, Aalborg Universitet](https://www.kajmunk.aau.dk/andre-resurser/om-munk)\n14. [Ordet (1955) company credits, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048452/companycredits/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on stage plays*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 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/ordet", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/ordet.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": "\"Ordet\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/ordet. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Ordet](https://www.edgepedia.org/ordet)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/ordet](https://www.edgepedia.org/ordet). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Ordet\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/ordet. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Ordet is Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1955 Danish drama, adapted from Kaj Munk's 1932 play, about a West Jutland farming family divided by faith, ending in a resurrection miracle; Golden Lion winner." }