Europa

Europa (known as Zentropa in North America) is a 1991 experimental psychological drama period film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier. The film is an international co-production between Denmark and five other European countries, it is von Trier's third theatrical feature film, and the third and final installment in his Europa trilogy, following The Element of Crime (1984) and Epidemic (1987). The film features an international ensemble cast, including Germans Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier, expatriate American Eddie Constantine, and Swedes Max von Sydow and Ernst-Hugo Järegård. This was German-born French-American Jean-Marc Barr's first collaboration of a series of films with von Trier. Europa was influenced by Franz Kafka's Amerika, and the title was chosen "as an echo" of that novel. The music, including the main theme, was composed by von Trier's ex-brother-in-law and frequent collaborator Joachim Holbek, who also composed Riget (1991-2022) and Manderlay (2005). Plot In the U.S.-occupied zone of Germany after the end of World War II, the entire population is under close surveillance. In this turbulent time, in an atmosphere saturated with fear and violence, the main events of the life of two very different but very close people unfold. A narrator (Max von Sydow) announces to the viewer that he will soon be waking up in "Europa". The voice counts to ten and proclaims, "When you have counted to ten inwardly, you will be in Europa."