Lars von Trier became an international sensation with this stunning realist fable about sexual liberation and spiritual transcendence. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Emily Watson is mesmeric as Bess, a simple, pious newlywed in a tiny Scottish village who gives herself up to a shocking form of martyrdom after her husband, Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), is paralysed in an oil rig accident. Breaking the Waves, by turns confrontational and tender, profane, and pure, is an extraordinary examination of the expansiveness of faith and of its limits.

Notes by David O’Mahony

Screening as part of Lars von Trier: Enduring Provocations. Multi-film pass available.