Pusher

"Pusher is the first feature film by Nicolas Winding Refn, who had previously cut his teeth on short films, one of which, with the same title, served as the basis for the future feature. Co-written with a friend, Jens Dahl, Pusher was released in 1996 in Denmark and, on a limited scale, in a few other countries, to a frosty critical reception. In France, the film was not released until ten years later, at the same time as its two sequels. In the meantime, the director had made Bleeder (1999, released in France in 2016) and Inside Job (2003, released in France in 2004). To say that Pusher failed to impress the French press upon its release would be an understatement, and Michael Ghennam wrote in L’Annuel du cinéma 2007: ‘In his approach, Refn draws as much from Lars von Trier and his Dogme movement as he does from Martin Scorsese for the world he depicts. Such comparisons are heavy-handed and risky, and Refn does not emerge unscathed’, (Les Fiches du cinéma). Yet the film would gradually develop a cult following, inextricably linked to the trilogy as a whole. Admittedly, the plot can be summarised in just a few pages. Frank, a small-time drug dealer in Copenhagen, gets his heroin from Milo, an influential Serbian kingpin. Hiding his stash at his stripper girlfriend’s flat, he struggles to pay off his debts. Together with his accomplice Tonny, he tries to find some money… But the essence of the film does not lie in this synopsis, which does little to reveal the film’s power." (Gérard Crespo; avoir-alire.com)