It was critically acclaimed, winning the Palme d'Or and the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and numerous other honours.

In the late 1850s, the elderly emigrant Lasse Karlsson and his son Pelle reach the Danish island of Bornholm after leaving Skåne County, in southern Sweden, following the death of the boy's mother.

The managers work under the tyrannical Kongstrup, who has a history of affairs with female employees, resulting in illegitimate children.

Erik shares his dream of visiting America, China, and "Negroland" with Pelle, aiming to "conquer" the world.

[5] The screenplay, by director Bille August, Per Olov Enquist, Max Lundgren, and Bjarne Reuter, adapted only the first Boyhood part of Nexø's four-volume work.

[7] The film marked the first collaboration between production designer Anna Asp, who had previously worked on Offret (1986), and August, who had attended a Stockholm school of photography with her.

[8] Asp said that in designing the house seen in Pelle the Conqueror, she wanted to evoke a prison, and thus built the walls and painted them black and white.

[11] Buoyed by the Academy Award recognition,[11] Pelle the Conqueror grossed $2,053,931 in North America,[4] a "respectable" figure for a foreign film.

[10] Peter Travers, writing for People, said that Von Sydow exhibited "wrenching simplicity and power," but the film "is maddeningly mediocre.

[14] Mark Chalon Smith, writing in The Los Angeles Times in 1993, praised the film as faithful to the novel and said "Cinematographer Jorgen Persson ... captures several memorable images of the starkly beautiful Danish terrain.

"[12] Time Out wrote "Despite occasional lapses into sentimentality, the film is saved by its performances and its uncluttered depiction of harsh impoverished lives," particularly praising von Sydow.