Breaking the Waves
Denmark, 1996
159
Drama
Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsg?rd, Katrin Cartlidge
Directed By: Lars Von Trier
Danish with English Subtitle
Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Awards, USA, 1997
Won Grand Prize of the Jury Cannes Film Festival, 1996

Drama set in a repressed, deeply religious community in the north of Scotland, where a naive young woman named Bess McNeil (Emily Watson) meets and falls in love with Danish oil-rig worker Jan (Stellan Skarsgaard). Bess and Jan are deeply in love but, when Jan returns to his rig, Bess prays to God that he returns for good. Jan does return, his neck broken in an accident aboard the rig. Because of his condition, Jan and Bess are now unable to enjoy a sexual relationship and Jan urges Bess to take another lover and tell him the details. As Bess becomes more and more deviant in her sexual behaviour, the more she comes to believe that her actions are guided by God and are helping Jan recover.