ROTTEN is a gripping investigative narrative that exposes the deeply flawed justice system of Denmark – a country often celebrated as a beacon of democracy and welfare. Based on extensive interviews with legal experts and representatives of civil society, ROTTEN delves into a series of cases highlighting profound injustices inflicted upon ordinary citizens by an increasingly omnipotent state apparatus.

The documentary reveals how the Danish state now prosecutes citizens for ever smaller infractions, with court cases dragging on for years in a system where the state wins 98% of all cases. Recent years have seen an unprecedented increase in new criminal laws, with five times more new offenses introduced compared to previous administrations, alongside increased penalties for 95% of all crimes.

Shockingly, 40% of Denmark’s prison population consists of pretrial detainees – individuals who have neither been charged nor sentenced. Half of pretrial inmates spend an average of five months, and the other half 8.5 months, almost always in 23-hour-per-day isolation – only for 25% to be released without a conviction or compensation.

Why has no one sounded the alarm on this assault on the population? How can this small nation, renowned as one of the world’s happiest and most trusting societies, quietly tolerate such undemocratic injustices?