You will have a million questions after watching the teaser for the new Danish thriller Copenhagen Cowboy, which Netflix has just released.
This six-part series from Pusher, Drive, and The Neon Demon director Nicolas Winding Refn follows a young lady named Miu (Angela Bundalovic) as she navigates the criminal underbelly of Copenhagen.
According to Netflix, the synopsis reads, “Searching for justice and exacting revenge, she encounters her archenemy, Rakel (Lola Corfixen), as they embark on an odyssey through the natural and supernatural.”
It proceeds to hint that the two ladies “find they are not alone and that there are many more like them.”
In the trailer, Miu (with her Will Byers-esque bowl cut) is seen in a variety of unexplained scenarios, including witnessing a fatal gunshot and holding a newborn. She wears the same bright blue tracksuit in both instances.
A narrator states throughout the episodes, “I don’t know what you are or what you’re capable of, but people around you are dying. Either that, or you give them fresh life.”
Obviously, I am interested.
Although many things have been kept secret, the series has not avoided the press circuit. Copenhagen Cowboy was shown for evaluation at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, where it garnered scant press and launched its trailer.
Early reviews were mixed, with Decider’s Marshall Shaffer stating that the series “may excite existing Refn fans, but it’s unlikely to attract new converts,” and The Playlist’s Rafaela Sales Ross giving the series a C+ and stating that “the combined visual and mental hyperstimulation is counterintuitive to the binge culture fostered by streaming platforms.”
In addition, the next series made news after PETA disclosed that a pig was shot and killed on-set. The group said that their source was the farmer who supplied the production with live pigs after being informed that one would be slaughtered for a scene.
PETA reported that the Copenhagen Zoo confirmed receiving a dead pig from the production facility, and Danish police were investigating the incident as this type of cruelty violates the Danish Animal Welfare Law.
The trailer contains no pig imagery, despite the BFI’s review of the film stating that “pigs are a predominant symbol” in the series. In response to the controversy, PETA requested that any depiction of the pig’s death be excised from the final cut.
However, a still image depicting a scene from a pig slaughterhouse was provided.
According to the women in the trailer, “She does not bring luck / she’s a real devil…” The same could be said for this peculiar release.
Copenhagen Cowboy premieres on Netflix on January 5, 2023.
»Early 2023, Netflix will debut Nicolas Winding Refn’s controversial thriller ‘Copenhagen Cowboy’«