Robert Eggers traded the claustrophobic dread of his earlier films for the open, brutal landscapes of Iceland in The Northman, a 2022 Viking revenge saga starring Alexander Skarsgård.
What is The Northman about?
As a boy, Amleth watches his father, a Viking king, murdered by his own uncle, and flees before the same fate can claim him. Years later, grown into a raider hardened by war, he learns his mother and the kingdom he was born to still live under his uncle's rule, and a single vow takes hold of him: avenge his father, save his mother, kill his uncle. His path back leads through Iceland, where he takes on a new identity to get close to his enemy, and where he meets Olga, a captive with her own reasons for wanting the usurper gone. The film builds its revenge plot around ritual, prophecy, and the harsh discipline of Viking-age life, staging its violence with a physical, unglamorized weight. Nicole Kidman plays Amleth's mother with a complexity that reshapes the story's moral center partway through, while Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke appear in roles tied to Amleth's childhood.
About the cast
Alexander Skarsgård carries the film physically and emotionally as Amleth, with Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga providing the story's other grounding presence; Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke, and Willem Dafoe fill out a cast built around family, betrayal, and vengeance.
Context & significance
Robert Eggers is known for period films built on meticulous research into folklore and historical detail, and The Northman extends that approach to Viking-age Scandinavia and Iceland, drawing on saga tradition for its structure of exile, prophecy, and blood vengeance. The production favored practical locations and a grounded visual style over stylized fantasy, giving the film's mythic elements a rougher, more physical texture than typical historical epics.
Watching The Northman on Ktime
The Northman is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, letting viewers follow Amleth's journey either in Farsi or with the original performances subtitled. Streaming requires only a free K-Time account, and the platform's Farsi-first design is built with the Iranian diaspora audience in mind.