Day of Wrath

Day of Wrath
The original Danish cinema poster
Directed by	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Produced by	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Written by	Carl Theodor Dreyer Poul Knudsen Mogens Skot-Hansen
Based on	Anne Pedersdotter by Hans Wiers-Jenssen
Starring	Thorkild Roose Lisbeth Movin Sigrid Neiiendam Preben Lerdorff Rye Albert Hoeberg
Music by	Poul Schierbeck
Cinematography	Karl Andersson
Edited by	Anne Marie Petersen Edith Schlüssel
Release date	13 November 1943 (Denmark) 23 November 1946 (UK) 24 April 1948 (USA)
Running time	100 min.
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish

Day of Wrath (Danish: Vredens Dag) is a 1943 Danish drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Lisbeth Movin, Thorkild Roose and Preben Lerdorff Rye. The film is an adaptation of the 1909 Norwegian play Anne Pedersdotter by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, based on an actual Norwegian case in the sixteenth century. The film tells the story of a young woman who is forced into a marriage with an elderly pastor after her late mother was accused of witchcraft. She falls in love with the pastor's son and also comes under suspicion of witchcraft.

The film was made during the Nazi Occupation of Denmark, and Dreyer left the country for Sweden after its release. It has received generally strong reviews, despite initial criticisms for slow pacing.

In a Danish village in 1623, an old woman known as Herlof's Marte is accused of witchcraft. Anne, a young woman, is married to the aged local pastor, Absalon Pedersson, who is involved with the trials of witches, and they live in a house shared with his strict, domineering mother Meret. Meret does not approve of Anne, who is much younger than her husband, being about the same age as the son from his first marriage. Anne gives Herlof's Marte refuge, but Marte is soon discovered in the house, though she is presumed to have hidden herself there without assistance. Herlof's Marte knows that Anne's mother, already dead at the time of the events depicted, had been accused of witchcraft as well, and had been spared thanks to Absalon's intervention, who aimed at marrying young Anne. Anne is thus informed by Herlof's Marte of her mother's power over people's life and death and becomes intrigued in the matter.

Absalon's son from his first marriage, Martin, returns home from abroad and he and Anne are immediately attracted to each other. She does not love her husband and thinks he does not love her. Under torture, Herlof's Marte confesses to witchcraft, defined among other evidence as wishing for the death of other people. She threatens to expose Anne if Absalon does not rescue her from a guilty verdict, begging him to save her as he saved Anne's mother. Marte, after pleading with Absalon a second time, does not betray his secret and is executed by burning with the villagers looking on. Absalon feels his guilt over having saved Anne's mother, but leaving Marte to burn. Anne and Martin, clandestinely growing closer, are seen as having changed in recent days, fueling Meret's suspicion of Anne's character. Anne is heard laughing in Martin's company by her husband, something which has not occurred in their time together. Absalon regrets that he married Anne without regarding her feelings and true intentions, and tells her so, apologizing for stealing her youth and happiness.