Peter Englesson

A fascination with the extreme is written across all of Lars von Trier’s works, beginning with this mesmeric investigation of criminal minds. Captured in burnt sepia tones expressive of photographic fragments or uncertain memories, the ashen film is also evocative of a changing—crumbling?—Europe.

Lars von Trier takes a starring role in his second feature, a metafictional—and metaphysical—exploration of creative culpability. If the title suggests a resonance with our contemporary condition, Epidemic soon reveals itself as a playfully ironic portrait of the artist-philosopher as a young man.