108 mins
8.2 / 10 (5560)
30

Synopsis

A young, idealist American gets a job as a train conductor for the Zentropa railway network in postwar, US-occupied Frankfurt. As various people try to take advantage of him, he soon finds his position politically sensitive, and gets caught up in a whirlpool of conspiracies and Nazi sympathisers.

MUBI's take

This early triumph by Lars von Trier, which won no less than three prizes at Cannes, is one of his most bizarre yet accessible works: a feverish retooling of film noir, an unhinged thriller, and a visually mind-blowing odyssey into a nightmare of our past.