Experimental filmmaker Lars von Trier also experimented with a TV show called The Kingdom in the 90s, which will now return for its third and final season. The Danish screenwriter and director is responsible for a long list of films both controversial and acclaimed (often both), including Nymphomaniac, Mother!, and Antichrist. His most recent is The House That Jack Built, which is shot from the perspective of a serial killer and spurred over 100 walkouts during its screening at the Cannes Film Festival. By contrast, Melancholia is widely considered one of the greatest films of this decade.
Von Trier's prolific body of work consists mostly of movies with the exception of The Kingdom, a miniseries that some consider a film in its own right. Directed by Morten Arnfred, the show is set in a hospital in Copenhagen and focuses on its neurosurgery department. Von Trier was inspired by Twin Peaks when conceiving The Kingdom, which is also highly stylized and semi-surreal. Like Lynch's unconventional show, The Kingdom leaves most of its ends loose. The Kingdom ran for two short seasons before getting canceled prematurely following the deaths of actors Ernst-Hugo Järegård and Kirsten Rolffes. Supposedly, von Trier had written the script for season 3 before production ended.
Deadline reports that season 3 will now be made 20 years later, retitled The Kingdom Exodus. The season consists of five episodes and will be the show's last. Filming is planned for 2021 anticipating a 2022 release. Louise Vesth will produce with Zentropa Entertainment, Trier's own company which was originally funded in part by revenue generated from The Kingdom. DR, the Danish broadcasting company that hosted seasons 1 and 2 of the show, is collaborating with the streaming service Viaplay, this time for a local release.
True to form, von Trier's statement announcing the project is as dense and labyrinthine as any of his movies. Read the full statement below:
Borders come in many forms; they may be lines drawn with rulers on white paper (often invisible to whoever chances to visit the actual geographical locations). The lines of the borders may be illustrative, if not to say quite fictitious and downright mean; they may be drawn in a soft, red color, practically invisible, and perhaps even as a dotted line, almost as if indicating an apology or even–shame.
Nevertheless, the lines hang there in inconceivable numbers, and together they constitute those 'territories' that the inhabitants are strong enough to defend. Entering and leaving often entail violence, for, of course, any visitor is expected to return after ending his or her business.
On Earth, "the Machine that makes everything go round (all life, that is)" is dependent on the conflicts which the lines provoke, as if by design. Whether Exodus actually means "entering" or "leaving" depends on the angle from which the border is observed, but the word simply describes a large number of individuals crossing a pencil-drawn line together. Why?…..There is an imbalance between good and evil! The limit has been reached, at least at the Kingdom….But I cannot testify that it will be easy and bloodless to pick the seven astral locks of the world simultaneously with doctor’s blood.
Unfortunately, von Trier doesn't reveal much in the way of plot, but it's an intriguing pitch, to say the least. Von Trier wrote the script for The Kingdom Exodus with his original co-writer Niels Vørsel, although it's not known whether that script is a final draft of one penned decades ago or an entirely new concept. Season 3 may resolve plots from previous seasons, but it's possible von Trier will ignore that expectation in favor of something less conventional. According to producers, The Kingdom Exodus will feature old and new characters and revisit conflicts between Danes and Swedes in the hospital.
Even with The Kingdom seasons 1 and 2 for reference, it's impossible to predict what a new season of television from Lars von Trier will have in store. If his impenetrable announcement and filmography are any indication, the director has no intention of making anything resembling comfort TV. But as streaming services churn out an endless watchlist of evermore algorithmically perfected programming, an obscure Scandinavian supernatural hospital drama might be just what the doctor ordered.
Source: Deadline