Directed by Robert Eggers, who wrote the screenplay with Sjon, The Northman follows a Viking prince, Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgard. Amleth’s mission is to revenge his father’s murder, which becomes his journey from a child to an adult.

The movie takes place in Iceland during the turn of the tenth century.

Young Prince Amleth, played by Oscar Novak, is on the cusp of becoming a man when his father, played by Ethan Hawke, is brutally murdered by his uncle, Claes Bang, who kidnaps the boy’s mother, played by Nicole Kidman. Fleeing his island kingdom by boat, the child vows revenge.

Two decades later, Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgard, is a Viking berserker raiding Slavic villages, where a seeress, played by Bjork, reminds him of his vow to avenge his father, save his mother, and kill his uncle.

Traveling on a slave ship to Iceland, Amleth infiltrates his uncle’s farm with the help of Olga, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, an enslaved Slavic woman — and sets out to honor his vow.

Eggers also directed The Witch, Anya Taylor-Joy’s first movie, The Lighthouse, comes an immersive Viking epic featuring an ensemble cast including Willem Dafoe.

“This is a big, muscular adventure, grander in scale than his previous films,” says Willem Dafoe, who co-starred in The Lighthouse and played the court jester Heimir the Fool in The Northman. “But Robert approaches it with the same kind of detail, creating sets, props and even shots that are made with such precision and care that the pretending on the part of the audience becomes effortless. Inside each shot of this movie, there is a rhythm and a story and a dynamic that’s beautiful on its own. Everything’s there on (the) screen; you don’t simply enter Eggers’ worlds — you get folded into them.”