Europa (1991 film)

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.

A young American of German descent, Leopold Kessler, comes to Germany and gets a job as a train conductor for the railway company Zentropa with his uncle. Leopold sees Germany from the perspective of moving trains, train stations or dormitories. As he tries unsuccessfully to conform to society's rules, he witnesses the country's inner turmoil and the aftermath of its recent past.

Before that, he falls in love with a young German woman, Katharina, the younger sister of Lawrence Hartmann and daughter of the founder of Zentropa, Max Hartmann, who is secretly associated with a group of underground Nazi terrorist conspiracy Werwolf. Katharina invites Kessler to dinner at her half-bombed family mansion. With the help of false testimony from a Jewish American, who claims he was the lifesaver, Max Hartmann receives a clean bill of health and is rehabilitated, but he later commits suicide out of shame. Later, Leopold marries Katharina in the cathedral, but shortly afterwards she disappears without a trace.

One day, the Werwolf group demands that Kessler use explosives to blow up the train. He makes the necessary preparations, but he then rediscovers Katharina, who makes the same demand of him. He tries to tell an American officer about the explosives, but circumstances prevent him from doing so. At this time, Leopold's superiors are trying to test his professional suitability. In desperation, he plants the explosives and sets the clockwork, but pity for the potential victims makes him turn it off.

In the meantime, the occupation authorities have uncovered the Werwolf cell. Kessler sees Katharina in handcuffs. She convinces him that it was he who made the mistake, because there are no innocent people in Germany, since during the war years its citizens either killed or betrayed. Kessler, driven to despair, pulls the emergency brake to prevent the train from leaving Germany, and reluctantly decides to detonate the explosives after all. As a result, one of the trains explodes on the bridge as intended. It crashes into the river and several people are killed, including Kessler's uncle and Katharina. Kessler too is drowned in the sunken train, and floats out to sea.

Style
Europa employs an experimental style of cinema, combining largely black and white visuals with occasional intrusions of colour (which later inspired Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust film Schindler's List), having actors interact with rear-projected footage, and layering different images over one another to surreal effect. The voice-over narration uses an unconventional second-person narrative imitative of a hypnotist.

The film's characters, music, dialogue, and plot are self-consciously melodramatic and ironically imitative of film noir conventions.

Morando Morandini writes: "More than the characters, what counts is the technical-formalistic apparatus: color contrasted with black and white, superimpositions, distorting lenses, dynamic camera, expressionistic-style set designs. Anti-German in substance, it is profoundly German in form".

Production
The film was shot throughout Poland (Chojna Cathedral (Marienkirche) and the Chojna Roundhouse) and in Denmark (Nordisk Film studios, Copenhagen and the Copenhagen Dansk Hydraulisk Institut). The cathedral where the main characters are getting married is that of Chojna, whose roof was destroyed by the Soviet army during the war.

Von Trier's production company, Zentropa Entertainments, is named after the sinister railway network featured in this film, which is in turn named after the real-life train company Mitropa.

Reception
Europa was released as Zentropa in North America to avoid confusion with Europa Europa (1990).

Critical reception
The film received largely positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 82% score based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.

The Lexicon of International Film gave a positive review: "A straightforwardly told mixture of thriller and melodrama, which is based on the classic role models of the genres, but goes beyond the given limits due to its unusual visual creative will. At the same time, an attempt is made to use film as a means of mass suggestion. Worth seeing because of the optically sophisticated form".

Accolades
The film won three awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival (Best Artistic Contribution, Jury Prize, and Technical Grand Prize). Upon realizing that he had not won the Palme d'Or, von Trier gave the judges the finger and stormed out of the venue.

In 1991, the film received the Grand Prix for Best Film at Film Fest Gent.

Home media
The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD in 2008. The package contained several documentaries on the film and an audio commentary by von Trier. In 2023, Criterion released a 4K restoration of the film as part of the Blu-ray box set, Lars von Trier's Europe Trilogy.