The Kingdom Exodus

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***The Kingdom Exodus*** *(Danish title: **Riget Exodus**)* is a revival and sequel series to the 1994 miniseries The Kingdom .

## Synopsis

An enormous organism of flesh and blood has materialized itself in The Kingdom’s rooms and corridors. On a dark and stormy night, the sleepwalking Karen senses something is wrong and travels to The Kingdom to search for answers. On her arrival, she discovers that the hospital is suffering and that she is the only one, who can free The Kingdom from its torment. At the same time the Swedish doctor, Helmer Junior, is newly employed at The Kingdom. He soon starts to feel a denigrating attitude from his Danish colleagues. Being a Swede, he puts his foot down and launches new approaches on the ward, such as total gender neutrality, which has almost fatal consequences. But evil gets in the way with even bigger and more horrifying plans. The time has come, it is going to happen... Exodus.

It is now that the spirits surrounding the hospital shall be divided into the light and the dark, and the gate localized and opened. It is now the air must be cleared of the big flock that never sleeps. When good men, who undoubtedly master science and state-of-the-art modern technology fail, and even the gatekeeper himself becomes too weak, it is up to Karen to carry the seemingly impossible task through a battle with pride and stupidity. Now, more than ever, we must all be prepared to take the good with the evil, as the gateway to the Kingdom is once opening again.

## Production

### Conception

Production for The Kingdom Exodus goes far back as 1998 when Lars von Trier was preparing to continue the story of The Kingdom with Riget III which would have been produced in 1999 and aired the following year. The production was halted due to the death of Ernst-Hugo Järegård on the 6th of September 1998. Later that same year another main cast member Morten Rotne Leffers also died. Lars and Niels Vørse had prepared a treatment of Riget III in 2000 but the continuation was again halted due to the passing of Kirsten Rolffes in April that year.

### Promotion and Release

In December 2020, DR announced that a third and final season of Riget would begin filming in 2021 under the title *Riget Exodus.* The season would consist of five episodes directed by von Trier, using the treatment Lars and Niels had prepared twenty years prior. Many members of the original Kingdom cast returned including Ghita Nørby, Søren Pilmark, Peter Mygind, Birgitte Raaberg, Laura Christensen and Udo Kier. In September 2022, *Exodus* (presented as a "five hour feature-length film") screened out of competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, alongside Nicolas Winding Refn's miniseries *Copenhagen Cowboy*. It was later released to stream online with Viaplay and Mubi.

## Episodes

* Halmar
* The Congress Dances
* Big Brother
* Barbarossa
* Exodus

## Cast and characters

### Main Cast

* Bodil Jorgensen - Karen Svensson
* Mikael Persbrandt - Helmer Jr.
* Lars Mikkelsen - Pontopidan
* Nicolas Bro - Balder
* Tuva Novotny - Anna
* Nikolaj Lie Kaas - Filip Naver
* Ghita Nørby - Rigmor Mortensen
* Søren Pilmark - Jørgen 'Hook' Krogshøj
* Birthe Neumann - Secretary
* Ida Engvoll - Kalle
* Birgitte Raaberg - Judith Petersen
* Peter Mygind - Morten 'Mogge' Moesgaard
* Jesper Sørensen - Lillemand
* Jasmine Junker - BOB 2.0
* Henning Jensen - Bob
* Solbjørg Højfeldt - ?
* Laura Christensen - Mona Jensen
* Udo Kier - Storbror

### Other Characters

* Hanne Løvendahl - Patient
* Ole Emil Riisager - Narrator
* Søren Helding Madsen - Opvasker
* Palmi Gudmundsson - Patient
* Cyron Melville - ?
* Asta Kamma August - ?
* Anders Mossling - ?
* David Dencik - Bosse
* Alexander Skarsgard - Swedish lawyer
* Jens Albinus - Dr. Parok
* Danica Curcic - ?
* Charlotte Sieling - ?
* Willem Dafoe - Grand Duc

## Response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the third season has an approval rating of 84% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An acquired taste for newcomers and comfort weirdness for Lars von Trier's devotees, *The Kingdom: Exodus* is a cheeky delicacy infused with cosmic horror that reaches biblically insane proportions."

*Exodus* was warmly received by critics following its premiere at the Venice in September 2022, with *Variety* calling it "over-the-top" and "fun", and the Italian Post praised the series, saying it "amuses and disturbs", and comparing it positively to *Twin Peaks*. *The Upcoming* gave the series 3/5, praising its "dark humour" and noting that it feels like a "tribute to Lars von Trier's career, a revisiting of his early work... filled with the wobbly handheld shots that distinguished the Dogme 95 movement". Giving it 3/5 stars, *The Guardian* called the series "a nightmarish revue, peppered with familiar faces in brief walk-on roles", and said that it is "fun to a point and richly textured to a fault, with a plot that’s entirely driven by what has gone before".