Each of the characters in “Adam’s Apples,” by the writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen, is a memorable one — some woefully flawed, others comically skewered, but all unflinchingly loved. It’s difficult to tell who is a more surprising creation: the priest-hating, fist-throwing neo-Nazi who is tempted one night to read the Bible, the gun-toting Afghan who makes regular excursions to rob gas stations as a sign of political protest, or the fat, depressed ex-tennis superstar who hides his addictions to booze, pick-pocketing, and sex.

It’s a closed world of eccentric characters — nothing short of a nut-house — all managed by a priest no less peculiar than these convicts who come to him in waves to satisfy their court-ordered community service. An endlessly chipper and optimistic man, he is less a religious fanatic than a feisty fatherly figure accustomed to the ways of the world. He’s the kind of man who turns the other cheek when a man beats him and who talks down a threat on his life by admonishing his attacker: “Well that’s just plain rude.”

Really, it’s this religious leader, Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen), who moves “Adam’s Apples” forward — the archetype amid the stereotypes that Mr. Jensen (“The Green Butchers”) so relishes redefining. As the lead character in the third film of Mr. Jensen’s trilogy involving peculiar Danish misfits, Ivan is one of his most fascinating oddballs, at times brave, naive, callous, and silly.

It’s through him that we come to understand the others. The film opens as he meets Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) on a barren country road. A neo-Nazi who carries with him only a few shirts and a framed picture of Hitler, Adam arrives at Ivan’s church for his community service and is immediately welcomed with open arms. Ivan hands Adam a Bible (a good thing to have, Ivan says) and asks him what he would like to do with his community service.

When Adam coldly replies, “Bake a pie,” Ivan calls his bluff, ordering the thug to care for the church’s apple tree and, when the apples are ripe, bake a pie. As Adam keeps watch, the tree repeatedly comes under attack — from birds pecking at the fruit to worms eating their way through to lightning striking from above. Ivan says the devil is testing Adam, but the atheist dismisses it as nonsense. There is no God and no devil, Adam asserts, and no deeper answer to the great what-if.

He has simple remedies for the first two attacks, but even Adam admits that the lightning has piqued his interest. Similarly, Khalid (Ali Kazim), the Afghan immigrant, initially seems like a petty bank robber, but he’s also a caring fellow who makes sure not to harm anyone on his robbing sprees and uses his attacks only to further an economic argument. Gunnar (Nicolas Bro), the fat tennis hasbeen, is not so much lazy as depressed — a fact we understand as we learn more about his famous burnout during the biggest match of his career.

For his part, Adam doesn’t quite fit the neo-Nazi mold. Yes, he shaves his head, worships at the altar of Hitler, and does all he can to mock and malign any who cross his path. But this closed-off tough guy also emerges as someone who is able to open up, and not just to the other perps in the church, but to the intrigue of the mystical and the idea of preaching something other than hate.

Mr. Jensen succeeds in forcing us to see these characters as constantly evolving human beings rather than stationary vehicles in a script. For him, it’s less important who they are in the present than who they aspire to be. Perhaps that’s why Ivan looks at his immobile, mentally disabled child and sees a playful youngster, why he willingly takes the brunt of Adam’s tirades before reminding the young man to go and care for the tree.

Ivan’s unbending faith in humanity makes this story more his than Adam’s. He talks less about sin or human failings than basic politeness, demanding decency and respect between even the most ardent enemies. Is he a foolish idealist? Are his followers desperate crackpots? Or is it possible they are the living proof of the good word’s power?

Mr. Jensen ambiguously invites us to make up our own minds. And he seems content with the fact that many may come to different conclusions. After all, it’s okay to disagree — as long as it’s done politely.