THE KINGDOM  - RIGET

The Kingdom is an eight-episode Danish television mini-series, created by Lars von Trier in 1994, and co-directed by Lars von Trier and Morten Arnfred. It has been also edited together into a four-hour film. The series is set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, nicknamed "Riget". "Riget" means "the kingdom" and leads one to think of "dødsriget", the realm of the dead. The show follows a number of characters, both staff and patients, as they encounter bizarre phenomena, both human and supernatural. The first quartet of episodes ended with numerous questions unanswered, and in 1997, the cast reassembled to produce another chapter,The Kingdom II. This second series ended with even more questions unanswered than the first. Unfortunately the death of the actors Ernst-Hugo Järegård, Kirsten Rolffes and Morten Rotne Leffers the likelihood of a third series is now very remote. 

Lars von Trier

(Copenaghen, 1956)

Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective although his own films have taken a variety of approaches. Known as a big provocateur, his work has frequently divided critical opinion. Nevertheless, he is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential authors in world cinema. In 1992 he and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen founded the movie production company Zentropa Entertainment. Von Trier began making films at age eleven. His first film was the 1977 experimental short The Orchid Gardener and his first feature came seven years later with The Element of Crime (1984). Among many prizes, awards and nominations, he is the recipient of the Palme d'Or (for Dancer in the Dark, 2000), and the Prix du Jury (Europa, 1991, Breaking the Waves, 1996)  at the Cannes Film Festival. His latest work is the so called “The Depression Trilogy” consists of Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011) and Nymphomaniac I and II (2013).  All three deal with characters who suffer depression in different ways. This trilogy is said to represent the depression that von Trier himself experiences.