Breaking the Waves

Deeply religious Scot falls in love with an oil rig worker in von Trier’s masterpiece that brought the world to tears and became Stellan Skarsgård’s big international breakthrough.

With Breaking the Waves, Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson became one of film history’s most memorable loving couples. The film was awarded with the Grand Prix at Cannes and is about the shy Bess who lives in a strict religious fishing society in the far north of Scotland. She meets the Scandinavian Jan, who works on the oil platform out at sea, and even if their love seems impossible, they get married. When Jan is on the oil rig, Bess prays to God that he will return. Her prays are heard, but not at all in the way she intended. In the raw and beautiful hand-held camera shots, Watson and Skarsgård invigorate this love story with all the devotion, power and passion that makes Breaking the Waves a completely unforgettable film experience.

• Jonas Holmberg