PUSHER: Mads Mikkelsen Week at FOMO Cinema
Wednesday 8. July at 19:00 - 20:50
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
There are movie stars, there are character actors, and then there is Mads Mikkelsen. Over three decades he has moved effortlessly between Copenhagen gangsters, priests, teachers, cannibals, Vikings, alcoholics, spies, surgeons and at least one man who cooks human beings for a living.
He has worked with Nicolas Winding Refn, Thomas Vinterberg, Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen and some of the biggest directors in international cinema, balancing arthouse cinema with global blockbusters.
For one week, FOMO is tracing that journey across eleven films. We'll start in the criminal underworld of 1990s Copenhagen, move through the dark comedies that helped define modern Danish cinema, and finish with the performances that transformed Mikkelsen into one of the defining screen presences of his generation.
Some of these films are masterpieces. Some are cult oddities. Many are both. Welcome to MADSNESS at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi
PUSHER
Nicolas Winding Refn | 1996 | Denmark | 1h50m | Danish with English subtitles
Few films have had a bigger impact on modern Danish cinema than PUSHER. Released in 1996 and made on a shoestring budget by twenty-four-year-old director Nicolas Winding Refn, the film dragged Danish crime cinema out of polished television dramas and into the streets of Copenhagen. Handheld cameras, natural lighting, unknown actors and an almost documentary sense of immediacy gave the film an energy that audiences hadn't seen before.
The story follows Frank, a small-time drug dealer whose life begins to unravel after a heroin deal goes catastrophically wrong. Over the course of a single week, debts mount, friendships fracture, and the walls begin closing in. Refn keeps the camera close to the action, capturing the paranoia and exhaustion of people living permanently one bad decision away from disaster.
For Mads Mikkelsen, PUSHER marked the beginning of one of Europe's great screen careers. His role as Tonny may be supporting here, but his screen presence is impossible to miss. Loud, impulsive and desperate for approval, Tonny would become one of the defining characters of Danish cinema and eventually earn an entire sequel of his own.
Today, PUSHER is recognised as one of the defining European crime films of the 1990s and the foundation stone for the wave of Scandinavian noir that followed. If you've ever wondered where modern Danish crime cinema began, this is where to start.
FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00, serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!
LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTMzMTA2Mjk0MDI5MjM1
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
