The Word

It's August, 1925 in rural Jutland, Denmark. Three generations of Borgens live on the family farm. Morten Borgen, the long widowed family patriarch, is a devout Lutheran. Most closely aligned to him religiously within the household is his only daughter-in-law, Inger Borgen, married to Morten's oldest of three adult sons, Mikkel Borgen, an agnostic, which Morten sees as a failure in his own parenting. Inger is currently pregnant with what will be her and Mikkel's third child, the first two being daughters, Maren and Lilleinger. Johannes Borgen, Morten's middle son, was his hope of that devout Lutheran among his children, as Johannes was the one who decided to study theology. But what happened with Johannes is that his intense study turned inward, resulting in him going mad, he believing that he is the current Jesus Christ. And Morten believes his youngest son, Anders Borgen, although a good man, is emotionally weak. In town, the Petersens, Peter Petersen the tailor and his wife Kirstin Petersen, belong to a fundamentalist sect of the church. Anders and the Petersens' daughter Anne Petersen have fallen in love and want to get married. Despite both being good, capable people, they know they will have problems convincing their parents of the union because of the differences in their religions. Indeed, Morten sees people like the Petersens as being holier than thou, while the Petersens see Morten as being not up to their faith. What happens with Inger and her pregnancy may give them all a different perspective of faith.