# Europa (1991 film)
**Europa** is a 1991 Danish feature film directed by [Lars von Trier](https://www.edgepedia.org/lars-von-trier), set in Germany just after the Second World War and released in the United States under the title **Zentropa**. It is the concluding film of von Trier's Europe trilogy, following *[The Element of Crime](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-element-of-crime)* (1984) and *Epidemic* (1987), and it won the Jury Prize, the Technical Grand Prize, and the Best Artistic Contribution award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.[1](https://boutique.arte.tv/detail/europa) • [2](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/europa/) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/awards/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Lars von Trier; screenplay by von Trier and Niels Vørsel[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/europa/) |
| Production | Denmark, 1991; producers Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Bo Christensen[5](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/europa/) |
| Principal cast | Jean-Marc Barr (Leopold Kessler), Barbara Sukowa (Katharina Hartmann), Udo Kier (Lawrence Hartmann), Eddie Constantine (Colonel Harris), Max von Sydow (narrator)[2](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/europa/) • [6](https://cinegraph.org/movies/europa-1991) |
| Cannes 1991 | Jury Prize (ex-aequo with *Out of Life*), Technical Grand Prize, Best Artistic Contribution; nominated for the Palme d'Or[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/awards/) • [4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/europa/) |
| Visual style | Black-and-white mixed with color, background and rear projection, double exposures and superimpositions; cinematography by Henning Bendtsen, Edward Kłosiński, and Jean-Paul Meurisse[7](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa) • [8](https://www.criterion.com/films/768) |
| US title | *Zentropa*, renamed to avoid confusion with Agnieszka Holland's film *Europa, Europa*[2](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/europa/) • [9](https://e-edu.nbu.bg/pluginfile.php/2078827/mod_resource/content/1/%28Conversations%20with%20filmmakers%20series%29%20Jan%20Lumholdt%20-%20Lars%20von%20Trier%20_%20interviews-University%20Press%20of%20Mississippi%20%282003%29.pdf) |
| Reception | Metacritic metascore 69 from 15 reviews; IMDb rating 7.3[10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/criticreviews/) • [11](https://suchen.tv/titel/europa-Lpq3Wm) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In October 1945, Leopold Kessler, a young American of German descent, arrives in a ruined Germany intending to do some good for the defeated population. He takes a job as a sleeping-car conductor for the Zentropa railway company, where he falls in love with Katharina, daughter of the company's owner. His idealism is tested as he is used by opposing factions: the American occupiers, represented by a secret agent played by Eddie Constantine, and remnants of the Nazi era, including the werewolves, underground fascist groups still active after the war, with which Katharina is involved.[7](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa) • [12](https://www.kino.de/film/europa-1991/) • [1](https://boutique.arte.tv/detail/europa)
The Cannes festival synopsis frames the same conflict through the family: for love of Katharina, Leo tries to reconcile the members of her household, torn apart by their political beliefs, but his American naivety only sharpens the passions and tensions of postwar Germany.[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/europa/)
## Style and technique
The film is built as a hypnotic séance. [Max von Sydow](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-von-sydow)'s voice opens it with an induction that counts the viewer down into the story, and the hypnotic frame recurs throughout.[8](https://www.criterion.com/films/768) Von Trier combines black-and-white photography with bursts of color, background projection, double takes, and elaborate superimpositions to evoke what the International Film Festival Rotterdam program calls a terrifying world, playing a virtuoso game of uncertainty in both story and images.[7](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa) The European Screen synopsis describes the result as an oneiric vision of a ruined Europe that feels less like a place than a fever dream, in which the style is the substance.[2](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/europa/)
Three cinematographers share the credit: Henning Bendtsen, Edward Kłosiński, and Jean-Paul Meurisse, with music by Joakim Holbek and editing by Hervé Schneid.[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/europa/) • [5](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/europa/) The film was shot in Denmark and Poland, and von Trier invited journalists and documentary crews to follow the production on location.[9](https://e-edu.nbu.bg/pluginfile.php/2078827/mod_resource/content/1/%28Conversations%20with%20filmmakers%20series%29%20Jan%20Lumholdt%20-%20Lars%20von%20Trier%20_%20interviews-University%20Press%20of%20Mississippi%20%282003%29.pdf)
## Origins and literary sources
Von Trier has acknowledged, in a postmodern way, his reuse of old film genres: the film carries elements of [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles), Fritz Lang, and [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock).[7](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa) The title comes from [Franz Kafka](https://www.edgepedia.org/franz-kafka)'s novel *Amerika*. Von Trier and Vørsel wanted a reversed version of that book's premise, an American in Europe rather than a European in America, and, more importantly, wanted to evoke the specific mood of Kafka.[7](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa) The American title *Zentropa* was chosen to avoid confusion with Agnieszka Holland's film *Europa, Europa*.[9](https://e-edu.nbu.bg/pluginfile.php/2078827/mod_resource/content/1/%28Conversations%20with%20filmmakers%20series%29%20Jan%20Lumholdt%20-%20Lars%20von%20Trier%20_%20interviews-University%20Press%20of%20Mississippi%20%282003%29.pdf)
The film's Germany is a constructed pastiche rather than a documentary reconstruction; one scholarly account describes it as a mixture of Prussian settings and the settings of postwar rubble cinema, linking the film to German postwar history and culture through dense layers of allusion.[13](https://paperzz.com/doc/8199349/layers-of-debris--layers-of-text--lars-von-trier-s-early)
## Awards and reception
At Cannes 1991 the film competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) and left with three prizes: the Jury Prize, shared with *Out of Life*; the Technical Grand Prize; and the Best Artistic Contribution award. The young Danish director reportedly bristled at not winning more.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/awards/) • [2](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/europa/) Further honors followed: the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film in 1992, Best Film and Best Cinematography at the Sitges festival, the Bronze Horse at Stockholm, and a Special Jury Prize for Artistic Merit at Santa Barbara, along with European Film Award nominations for Barbara Sukowa and for production design.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/awards/)
Critical response has been divided along a consistent line. Reviewers collected on Metacritic, where the film scores 69 from 15 reviews, praise the technique while questioning the story. The *New York Times*' Stephen Holden called the plot the only conventional aspect of an impudently flashy exercise in postmodern cinematic expressionism; Roger Ebert found it too confusing to succeed but too striking and visually beautiful to ignore; the *Los Angeles Times* judged it an exercise in pseudo-profundity with more metaphors than it knows what to do with.[10](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/criticreviews/)
## Legacy
The film is held in the Criterion Collection as spine #454, in a director-approved 4K restoration, and as part of the *Lars von Trier's Europe Trilogy* box set.[8](https://www.criterion.com/films/768) • [14](https://www.search-criteria.com/films/3374?from=top10) Its production also had an industrial afterlife: the Zentropa film company was founded in 1992 as a result of the collaboration between von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen on *Europa*, and went on to produce more than 100 features and to shape the [Dogme 95](https://www.edgepedia.org/dogme-95) movement.[15](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/images%2Ffiles%2F77%2F77912453-e3d2-4ce7-be3a-101d020003d0.pdf)
Reported running times differ by source: the Cannes archive lists 107 minutes, [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) and [JustWatch](https://www.edgepedia.org/justwatch) list 112 minutes, and the [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) festival listing gives 113 minutes.[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/europa/) • [8](https://www.criterion.com/films/768) • [7](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa) In Germany the film passed FSK certification on 24 June 1991 for viewers aged 16 and opened in cinemas on 27 June 1991.[12](https://www.kino.de/film/europa-1991/) • [16](https://www.filmportal.de/film/europa_159bba5700504cdc8d8ce6d961ba4c5a)
## References
1. [Europa, ARTE Boutique](https://boutique.arte.tv/detail/europa)
2. [Europa, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/europa/)
3. [Europa (1991) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/awards/)
4. [EUROPA, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/europa/)
5. [EUROPA, Commissione Nazionale Valutazione Film](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/europa/)
6. [Europa, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/europa-1991)
7. [Europa, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/1991/films/europa)
8. [Europa (1991), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/768)
9. [Lars von Trier: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi (2003), PDF](https://e-edu.nbu.bg/pluginfile.php/2078827/mod_resource/content/1/%28Conversations%20with%20filmmakers%20series%29%20Jan%20Lumholdt%20-%20Lars%20von%20Trier%20_%20interviews-University%20Press%20of%20Mississippi%20%282003%29.pdf)
10. [Europa (1991) – Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101829/criticreviews/)
11. [Europa (1991) streamen, suchen.tv](https://suchen.tv/titel/europa-Lpq3Wm)
12. [Europa, Film 1991, Kino.de](https://www.kino.de/film/europa-1991/)
13. [Layers of debris, layers of text: Lars von Trier's early films](https://paperzz.com/doc/8199349/layers-of-debris--layers-of-text--lars-von-trier-s-early)
14. [Europa (1991), Criteria](https://www.search-criteria.com/films/3374?from=top10)
15. [Zentropa press materials, Filmtrack](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.filmtrackonline.com/mongrelmedia/starcm_vault_root/images%2Ffiles%2F77%2F77912453-e3d2-4ce7-be3a-101d020003d0.pdf)
16. [Europa, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/europa_159bba5700504cdc8d8ce6d961ba4c5a)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Thrillers › Released 1990 to 1995*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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