Hans Kirk - The Fishermen

The Fishermen tells the collective story of a northern Jutland rural fishing village in 1920's Denmark. It is an excellent example of social realism. Its newest inhabitants are members of the Inner Mission (Indre Mission in Danish) puritanical revivalist movement, and refer to themselves as "the Pious", and their beliefs are often at odds with the less rigid Grundtvigian villagers. As the Pious adjust to life in their new village, they struggle with economic hardship and personal upheaval, while trusting that any and all outcomes are God's will. Kirk himself was an atheist; however, in writing The Fishermen, he wished to show the connection between religion, economics, and politics in rural life. Kirk attempted to understand rather than condemn the Pious movements popularity in rural Denmark, by examining how they made sense of their socioeconomic conditions outside of a political framework. His portrayal of the Pious can be read as deeply sympathetic.

The Fishermen was reworked eight times, before its final version. While Kirk's extensive revisions of The Fishermen was a process of choice; he would be forced to completely rewrite later works.

The Fishermen was adapted into a six hour film by Danish state television in 1977.