Originally known as Europa, this film put Danish director von Trier on the map. It opens with Max von Sydow's hypnotic narration and closes with one of the most powerful visual sequences in recent film history. The story is ostensibly about a young American who goes to work as an apprentice railway conductor in post-war Nazi Germany, but the main attraction is the surreal allegorical atmosphere that von Trier so masterfully evokes throughout.

Harold Check