Europa

Postwar Germany. Leopold Kessler, a young American of German descent, takes a job as a conductor on the Zentropa railway. He believes he is well-meaning, but neutrality is not available in an occupied country; the owner's daughter and clandestine Nazi resistance cells push him to a side at every step. Lars von Trier directed. It completes the Europa trilogy after The Element of Crime in 1984 and Epidemic in 1987. The production is a Danish-led co-production across five European countries. The visual language is experimental: largely black and white with intrusions of colour, rear projection and layered images. The technique is said to have influenced Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 81 percent and Metacritic at 69. Roger Ebert called it strange, haunting and labyrinthine; some critics found it emotionally distant. It took three prizes at Cannes: Best Artistic Contribution, the Jury Prize and the Technical Grand Prize. On learning he had not won the Palme d'Or, von Trier made a rude gesture at the jury and walked out. Criterion released it on DVD in 2008 and on 4K Blu-ray in 2023. Who it is for: viewers who like formally daring films and the moral fog of postwar Europe. Who it is not for: anyone wanting to bond with a character. The film positions you throughout as a subject under hypnosis.