PUSHER Trilogy

Almost 30 years after Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn delivered his directorial debut with the hard-hitting and ultra-gritty thriller PUSHER, the film plus its two sequels are now available in two versions - Limited Edition 4K UHD and Limited Edition Blu-ray. Shocking, uncompromising, raw and seedy, this is Winding Refn through and through!

PUSHER (1996):
The first of the Copenhagen-based trilogy not only sets the tone but introduces us to the main characters (some of which re-appear in the two sequels). Frank (Kim Bodnia - THE BRIDGE / KILLING EVE) is a small time drug dealer and big time asshole who, together with his somewhat dimwitted sidekick Tonny (an almost unrecognisable Mads Mikkelsen sporting a shaved head, tattoos and Adidas ‘couture’), dabbles in dealing smack though both men are not very good at it. The little money they got is soon spent in various dives and bars around town. Frank also has a girlfriend, well, sort of, by the name of Vic (Laura Drasbaek) who happens to be a ‘champagne’ hooker and a smack head who conveniently stores some of his drugs in her apartment, for a fee of course. Things begin to look on the up - at least regarding Frank - when Hasse (Peter Andersson), a Swede Frank shared some time with in the slammer, turns up out of the blue and proposes an apparently fool-proof plan involving a massive drug deal. Somehow, we know straight away that things will go pear-shaped and that’s an understatement! For one, Frank is tasked with getting the smack from Milo (Zlatko Buric), a ruthless Serbian drug lord whose softer side involves cooking and baking! Trouble is that Frank is already in debt as he still owes Milo money from a previous ‘transaction’ but hey, Milo, who regards Frank as a friend, allows his buddy to depart with yet another stash of smack provided Frank returns with the money he owes double-quick. And this is what he really had intended but unfortunately, during the planned drugs exchange with Hasse, the police turn up out of nowhere and before Frank knows what’s brewing, he finds himself in the slammer once again. Not for long though as the coppers can’t prove he was in possession of the drugs (which ended up in a pond in the park while Frank attempted to flee) but now he’s in real trouble because he owes Milo more money than ever before…and Milo is running out of patience and begins to threaten Frank with his unpleasant enforcer Radovan (Slavko Labovic). Meanwhile, Tonny gets a terrible beating from Frank as he believes that somehow, he was responsible for the failure of the drug deal. Things begin to get seriously tense and nasty from then on, with an increasingly desperate and panicking Frank attempting to get at least some of the money together he owes Milo. If only he wouldn’t have treated Vic with such distain… The film’s ending is deliberately vague but it’s clear that unless Frank does a runner and leaves Copenhagen (or perhaps Denmark altogether) he will be a dead man.

PUSHER II (2004):
Kim Bodnia is out of the picture though we learn that his character, Frank, is no longer in Denmark - no specifics provided. Instead, it’s Tonny who takes over the main character for this second instalment and yes, he still sports tattoos, romper suits and his shaven head. He’s still as useless and it goes without saying that he still hangs out with the completely wrong crowd, that is to say the lowlife of Copenhagen’s underworld: drug dealers, prostitutes, thieves and similar riff raff. Tonny, fresh out of prison, is eager for some work and hopes that ‘Smeden the Duke’ (Leif Sylvester), a particularly nasty piece of work, might be the answer to his prayers. Despite his low opinion of Tonny, Duke offers him a job on a trial basis but no prize for guessing that Tonny makes a botch job of his various opportunities. To make matters worse, Tonny’s friend Ø (Oyvind Hagen-Traberg), soon to be married to Gry (Maria Erwolter) reveals that while in the slammer, Tonny has become a father (apparently), the baby’s mother being Charlotte (Anne Sorensen), a drug addict, prostitute and Gry’s best friend. Charlotte demands regular payments from Tonny seeing how she can no longer work now that she is mother though Tonny initially refuses to accept that he is the little boy’s dad. With all this trouble going on you’d be forgiven to think that Tonny’s situation can hardly get worse but it does, namely when Serbian drug lord Milo bounces back onto the scene. A deal between him and ‘Kurt the C**t’ - a local pimp, goes wrong within no time Tonny is in the thick of it. There’s the x-rated wedding reception from hell, there’s Duke demanding from Tonny that he should go to the local brothel and murder the mothers of Duke’s son (whom he adores), and then there’s the moment in which Tonny finally snaps… and leaves this vicious circle behind him for good - together with his infant son and a promise to himself to be a caring father if nothing else.

PUSHER 3 (2005):
Not only the bleakest and most depressing of the lot but neither Kim Bodnia nor Mads Mikkelsen appear in this final instalment, presumably because at that time, both actors had already carved out a successful international career. Instead, the central figure is Serbian drug lord Milo, already known from the previous two films but apart from his two henchmen Branko (Vasilije Bojicic) and Radovan, and Kurt the C**t, practically all faces are new here and dominantly Slavic. The film starts with Milo attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings (it would be funny if it weren’t so tragic) and is looking forward to whipping up a meal fit for a Queen in honour of his beloved daughter Milena’s (Marinela Dekic) 25th birthday bash. Before the party, he and Branko are busy receiving a shipment of heroin, which turns out to be a shipment of ecstasy pills instead. Not to worry - after an ‘intense’ conversation with Luan (Kujitim Loki), Milo’s Albanian drug supplier, things are rectified in no time. Enter Little Muhammed (Ilyas Agac), a young drug dealer with big ambitions despised by Milo and yet, he needs Muhammed to flog the ecstasy pills as due to his young age, he knows the right clientele. As expected, things don’t fare smoothly during Milena’s birthday party, who turns out to be a spoiled brat. Milo has a relapse when, by chance, he encounters Kurt in a Chinese restaurant while waiting for 60 portions of take-aways after the chicken dish he cooked for the birthday dinner turned out to be dodgy meat. Kurt slips a little envelope of smack at Milo and voila, it’s deja vu! The final twenty minutes or so are incredibly graphic and unpleasant to watch, you have been warned!
Kim Bodnia and Mads Mikkelsen deliver ace performances (as does Zlatko Buric) and despite the nitty gritty of it all, raw human emotions aren’t in short supply either.

Special Features include: Rigid slipcase / 120 page booklet / 5 collectors art cards / audio commentaries / feature length documentary / various audio options.