Riders of Justice is the story of veteran soldier Markus who returns home from Afghanistan to care for his daughter after his wife is killed in a tragic train accident. But he has an unexpected encounter with a statistical analyst, Otto, who is one of the few survivors of the accident and is convinced that there is more to this tragedy and that many secrets are hidden in plain sight. Markus begins to suspect his wife was murdered and embarks on a mission of revenge.
Riders of Justice is an action-comedy film directed and written by Anders Thomas Jensen. He is known as the writer of the film Duchess, and his short film Election Night won Best Short Film Academy Award in 1999.
Tragedy and coincidences are the major themes of Riders Justice, but there is a subtext of revenge that is played out through a minor but significant character, Bodashka. The message of this character’s part in the plot is that revenge is not the answer.
The role of Markus is played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. In his youth, Mikkelsen trained as a gymnast but changed to study dancing at the ballet academy in Gothenburg where he also became fluent in Swedish. During his dancing career, he met choreographer Hanne Jacobsen, whom he married in 2000.
In 2006, he achieved international success as Le Chiffre in the twenty-first James Bond film, Casino Royale. He has said that he won the part so easily that even Daniel Craig asked if he had slept with someone in order to be cast. He said of the casting that because he was already a big film star in Denmark at the time, the international role did not really change his life much. The film Another Round, in which Mikkelsen had the lead role, won a Golden Globe, an Oscar and many other awards in 2021.