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We are republishing this review in honor of the 10th anniversary of the passing of Roger Ebert . Read why one of our contributors chose this review here .

“Breaking the Waves” is emotionally and spiritually challenging, hammering at conventional morality with the belief that God not only sees all, but understands a great deal more than we give Him credit for. It tells the story of Bess, a simple woman of childlike naivete, who sacrifices herself to sexual brutality to save the life of the man she loves. Is she a sinner? The grim bearded elders of her church think so. But Bess is the kind of person Jesus was thinking of, I believe, when he suffered the little children to come unto him.

The movie takes place in the 1970s, in a remote northern Scottish village. Bess ( Emily Watson ), a sweet-faced and trusting girl, is “not quite right in the head,” and her close-knit community is not pleased by her decision to marry Jan ( Stellan Skarsgard ), who works on one of the big oil rigs in the North Sea. But she loves Jan too much that when the helicopter bringing him to the wedding is delayed, she hits him in a fury. He is a tall, gentle man with a warm smile, and lets her flail away before embracing her in his big arms.

She is a virgin, but so eager to learn the secrets of marriage that she accosts her new husband in the powder room at the reception after the ceremony, telling him eagerly, “You can love me now!” And then, “What do I do?” The miracle of sexual expression transforms her, and she is grateful to God for having given her Jan and his love and his body.

Meanwhile, downstairs at the ceremony, Jan's shipmate and Bess' grandfather scowl at one another; the shipmate crushes a beer can, and the grandfather picks up a lemonade glass and breaks it in his bloody hand.

We learn a little about Bess, who had a breakdown when her brother died. Her closest friend is her sister-in-law, Dodo ( Katrin Cartlidge ), a nurse who stays in the remote district mostly because of her. Bess belongs to a strict sect where women do not speak in church, and the sermon over the body at a funeral might be, “You are a sinner and will find your place in hell.” Bess' grandfather observes sourly, “We have no bells in our church.” Jan is critically injured in an accident on the rig. He is paralyzed from the neckdown, and the local doctor tells Bess he may never walk again. “You don't know Jan!” she says fiercely. One day Jan asks her to find a man and make love to him, “for my sake. And then tell me about it.” Bess does not like this idea, but she does what Jan asks. Dodo is enraged: “Are you sleeping with other mento feed his sick fantasies? His head's full of scars--he's up to his eyeballs in drugs.” It is indeed never made quite clear why Jan, a good man, has made this request of the woman he loves. That is not the point. The point is that Bess, with her fierce faith, believes that somehow her sacrifice can redeem her husband and even cure him. As his condition grows worse, her behavior grows more desperate; she has herself taken out to a big ship where even the port prostitutes refuse to go, because of the way they have been treated there.

The film contains many surprising revelations, including a cosmic one at the end, which I will leave you to discover for yourself. It has the kind of raw power, the kind of unshielded regard for the force of good and evil in the world that we want to shy away from. It is easier sometimes to wrap ourselves in sentiment and pious platitudes, and forget that God created nature “bloody in tooth and nail.” Bess does not have our ability to rationalize and evade, and fearlessly offers herself to God as she understands him.

This performance by Emily Watson reminds me of what Truffaut said about James Dean , that as an actor he was more like an animal than a man, proceeding according to instinct instead of thought and calculation. It is not a grim performance and is often touched by humor and delight, which makes it all the more touching, as when Bess talks out loud in two-way conversations with God, speaking both voices--making God a stern adult and herself a trusting child. Her church banishes her, and little boys in the village throw stones at her, but she tells Dodo, “God gives everyone something to be good at. I've always been stupid, but I'm good at this.” “Breaking the Waves” was written and directed by Lars von Trier, from Denmark, who makes us wonder what kinds of operas Nietzsche might have written. He finds the straight pure line through the heart of a story, and is not concerned with what cannot be known: This movie does not explain Jan's cruel request of his wife, because Bess does not question it. It shows people who care about her, such as the sister-in-law and the local doctor, and others who do not: religious bean-counters like the bearded church elders. They understand nothing about their Christianity except for unyielding rules they have memorized, which means they do not understand Christianity at all. They talk to God as if they expect him to listen, and learn. At the end of the film they get their response in a great savage ironic peal.

Not many movies like this get made, because not many filmmakers are so bold, angry and defiant. Like many truly spiritual films, it will offend the Pharisees. Here we have a story that forces us to take sides, to ask what really is right and wrong in a universe that seems harsh and indifferent. Is religious belief only a consolation for our inescapable destination in the grave? Or can faith give the power to triumph over death and evil? Bess knows.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Breaking the Waves (1996)

Rated R For Strong Graphic Sexuality, Nudity, Language and Some Violence.

156 minutes

Katrin Cartlidge as Dodo

Jean-Marc Barr as Terry

Adrian Rawlins as Doctor Richardson

Jonathan Hackett as The Minister

Emily Watson as Bess

Udo Kier as Man On The Trawler

Sandra Voe as Bess' Mother

Stellan Skarsgard as Jan

Written and Directed by

• Lars von Trier

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Breaking the Waves review – Emily Watson adds brilliance to von Trier’s windup of a movie

In Lars von Trier’s otherwise ridiculous film, Watson brings generous substance to a punishing role as a dangerously selfless wife

L ars von Trier’s deadpan-tragic fantasy of emotional pain from 1996 is now re-released as part of a retrospective dedicated to this director; it is magnificently acted, stylishly composed and entirely ridiculous from beginning to end. An operatically extravagant artsploitation ordeal that devastated saucer-eyed audiences at the Cannes film festival , Breaking the Waves won Von Trier the Grand Prix, though missed out on the Palme d’Or. It also launched him as a world-cinema superstar, though it is surely only the blazing passion of his lead Emily Watson that gives this film its substance; she varnishes it with her own luminous talent and commitment. It is perhaps to Watson that Von Trier owes his entire career.

Breaking the Waves is set in a quaintly imagined remote Scottish community in the pre-cellphone era of the 70s and 80s, many of whose menfolk are away for long periods on an oil rig. It is dominated by a fiercely patriarchal, joyless, puritanical and rather Scandinavian-looking church whose elders are in the habit of condemning wrongdoers to hell in special sinners’ burials. The sheer cruelty of these ceremonies is what continues to sweep this film’s fervent audiences away in horror and compassion, perhaps not quite grasping that these appalling events are a figment of Von Trier’s imagination. The director can’t help an unsubtle giggle in the initial burial scene: the sinner being interred is called “Anthony Dod Mantle”, the name of the British cinematographer who went on to shoot a number of celebrated films, including Von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay.

Watson is generous and gentle in the role of Bess, a beautiful, childlike young woman who regularly cleans the church and in private has weird, ventriloquised conversations with God there. But she suffers from depression and has already been hospitalised with a breakdown after the death of her brother Sam, who was married to Dodo (Katrin Cartlidge), a local nurse who is now Bess’s fiercely protective best friend. To the unease of her straitlaced family, Bess is getting married to oilrigger Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), a boozy, rough-mannered guy but with humour, honesty and intelligence; he is deeply in love with her and sees her qualities in a way that her uptight family do not.

Then when Jan is paralysed following an accident on the rig, he asks Bess to have sex with strangers and then come back to his bedside to tell him so that they can be psychically intimate. And poor vulnerable Bess, in a kind of Magdalen sacrifice, does so, her encounters becoming ever more reckless, believing that her sexual martyrdom will physically cure Jan.

Like all of Von Trier’s films, Breaking the Waves is a kind of hoax or prank, a superbly engineered and detailed windup, manipulating audiences with lethal control and ingenuity – particularly those febrile international audiences at Cannes, which for over a quarter of a century has been his launchpad (apart from the seven-year ban that followed his expression of sympathy for Hitler ). And it sometimes dispenses with narrative believability entirely: Bess is at one stage sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but escapes from two police officers accompanying her to Glasgow … and then, well, the police just seem to forget about the whole thing and she comes back to her home village.

Von Trier attempted again to put a woman through a similar preposterous ordeal in Dancer in the Dark in 2000, starring Björk, a very much less talented actor (who went on to lodge her own #MeToo complaint about Von Trier’s behaviour). For me, the latter film was an out-and-out embarrassment , a film in which Von Trier’s hoax aesthetic had nothing to recommend it – although it actually won both the Palme d’Or and best actress at Cannes, awards which should have gone to Breaking the Waves.

But even as a longtime Von Trier unbeliever, I have to concede the force with which Breaking the Waves is delivered. It is shot with fluency and energy; the dreamy chapter-heading inserts are striking, the final image is powerful, and of course Watson herself is a triumph. And even Von Trier’s patent insincerity and facetiousness could be read as a satire on movie emotionalism, or as its own kind of conceptual art. Either way, it’s quite an experience.

• Lars von Trier
• Emily Watson
• Drama films
• Period and historical films
• Stellan Skarsgård
• Cannes film festival

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Breaking the Waves (Denmark/France, 1996)

According to writer/director Lars von Trier, Breaking the Waves is "a simple love story", but "simple" hardly begins to describe this deeply disturbing, multi-layered drama. In fact, nowhere is the picture's complexity more evident than in its study of contrasts -- it is highly spiritual yet anti-religious, triumphant yet tragic, and personal yet universal. Love forms the film's core, but rather than approaching the subject from a cliched perspective, Breaking the Waves examines no less than six facets of the emotion: transformative love, sacrificial love, redemptive love, destructive love, romantic love, and sexual love. And, despite a slightly disappointing conclusion, this movie still rates among the best of the year.

To date, von Trier's best-known international effort was the 1991 release, Zentropa (called Europa outside of North America). Those whose familiarity with the director dates to that movie will find Breaking the Waves a surprising experience. Gone are the artistic, stylized flairs that dominated Zentropa . The nearly-antiseptic perspective has been replaced by something far more involved and intimate. It's easy to view the characters in Zentropa from a detached vantage point; a similar approach is impossible for Breaking the Waves .

This epic-length film is divided into nine sections: a prologue, seven "chapters", and an epilogue. Breaking the Waves transpires sometime during the 1970s in Scotland. (The exact year is irrelevant since there's a timeless quality to the material -- it could be taking place today if the music, clothing, and automobiles didn't argue for an earlier decade.) Most of the action occurs in a closed village with deeply-rooted fundamentalist Christian beliefs. According to the elders who rule with an iron fist, life isn't for enjoyment; it's for serving God. Sex isn't for pleasure; it's for procreation. Outsiders aren't welcome; they're consigned to hell. So when meek, kind-hearted Bess (Emily Watson) announces that she intends to marry oil-rig worker Jan (Stellan Skarsgard), an unbeliever, the entire community is stunned.

Despite the stern disapproval of all the elders, the marriage goes ahead, and Bess finds herself happier than she ever could have imagined. She enjoys sex almost as much as she does the simple joy of lying in her snoring husband's arms. But heartbreak looms ahead. Jan returns to his rig, leaving a lonely Bess behind. Even her best friend and sister-in-law, Dorothy ( Before the Rain 's Katrin Cartlidge), can't lift her out of her profound depression, but when a local doctor (Adrian Rawlins) is called in to evaluate her mental state, he proclaims her sane. Then tragedy strikes as a freak work accident renders Jan paralyzed from the neck down.

Central to the narrative is Bess' relationship with God. For most of the movie, von Trier keeps it ambiguous whether she is psychotic or truly involved in some kind of special communion with the Almighty. Does she really hear God's voice, or is she exhibiting signs of a split personality? Is she His instrument of salvation, or is she merely experiencing potentially self-destructive delusions? Unfortunately, in a late scene, von Trier tips the balance in favor of one interpretation, and this dilutes the film's overall impact.

That said, there's little doubt that von Trier is using Breaking the Waves as an opportunity to contrast the elders' rigid, unforgiving attitudes with Bess' gentle, giving spirit. Because her unorthodox attempts to save her injured husband involve breaking the Law, she puts her status within the community at jeopardy. To further emphasize the strength of her position's spiritual foundation, von Trier parallels Bess' sufferings with those of Jesus -- she is condemned by the holders of the Law, suffers for the sake of those she loves, and, ultimately, offers a path to salvation.

Breaking the Waves is presented as an excursion in cinema verite. Von Trier, in collaboration with cinematographer Robby Muller, uses a handheld camera throughout. In addition, in order to obtain a grainy image with muted colors, the film makers took the original widescreen print, transferred it to video, then brought it back to film. So, while there are times when Breaking the Waves may threaten to induce nausea (especially to those who sit close to the screen), this style effectively creates a faux documentary environment that breaches invisible barriers and brings us into painfully close contact with the characters.

One area where von Trier errs is in his use of artistic "chapter breaks". Each chapter has a title that's presented during a brief intermission from the action which features a richly-hued, painting- like image on screen while '70s rock tunes (like Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" or David Bowie's "Life on Mars") play in the background. The biggest problem with these inserts is that, while they offer a brief respite from the film's unrelenting intensity, their interruption of the mood becomes an unwanted intrusion.

As the deeply disturbed Bess, British stage actress Emily Watson turns in an award-worthy performance. Since Bess must endure a number of physically and mentally degrading events while her volatile personality veers from emotional calm to complete hysteria, Watson's task of creating a believable character becomes more difficult as the movie progresses. To her credit, she never falters. The supporting players, including Stellan Skarsgard and Katrin Cartlidge, do fine jobs, but none captures the lens the way Watson does.

There's no denying that Breaking the Waves is a difficult motion picture to endure, yet, despite its length, it holds the viewer's attention for the full one-hundred fifty-nine minutes. Excepting the chapter breaks, there isn't a wasted moment. And, if not for a somewhat forced catharsis during the epilogue (the weakest segment of the movie), Breaking the Waves would have been more wrenching than it is. This achievement announces that von Trier's aptitude for fashioning characters equals, if not exceeds, that which he has previously displayed for images.

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Movie Review: 'Breaking the Waves'

True art is a journey to somewhere you’ve never been, and there has never been a movie quite like Breaking the Waves . Set in a Scottish seacoast village during the early 1970s, this solemnly rapturous epic, the first English-language picture by the Danish maverick Lars von Trier, might be described as a mystical cinema-vérité fairy tale, a theological daydream of martyrdom and redemption, or the most passionate love story of the year. More than anything, though, Breaking the Waves is an experience , a movie that invites you, with moment-to-moment intimacy, to share the psychic space of its characters, to enter a world in which love, madness, sex, physical paralysis, glitter rock, and the presence of God flow in and out of each other.

At the beginning, we’re made witness to the wedding of Bess (Emily Watson), a shyly beaming young woman who has tested the boundaries of her strict Calvinist community — they’re like the Amish with deeper scowls — by marrying an outsider, a burly, handsome oil-rig worker named Jan (Stellan Skarsgard). The wedding, like the rest of the film, is photographed with a handheld camera, the images bleached yet saturated (an effect cinematographer Robby Muller achieved by shooting on film and transferring the footage to video, then back to film again). It’s as if we were eavesdropping on someone’s home movies. Von Trier doesn’t just simulate reality — he slows down your reaction time, so that the most tossed-off events become vivid dramatic experiences. You practically feel that you’re getting stoned. The trick of the movie is this: Beneath its shaky-cam verisimilitude, Breaking the Waves weaves a tale of spells, portents, miracles. Von Trier’s achievement is to make these things as real, as tangibly present , as the world itself.

Bess, raised in a community of repression, experiences Jan as her first breath of oxygen, and when he has to travel back to the rig, she grows hysterical with loss. This is but one of many cathartic mood swings in Emily Watson’s strange, fearless, bewitching performance. Watson has huge, beatific eyes, the grin of a naughty angel, and a voice that lends the most unassuming comments a tone of lyrical inquiry. Kneeling in church, Bess carries on conversations with God, lowering her voice to speak as a stern, logical inquisitor and then as her imploring, waif-child self, and we’re not sure, at first, what we’re listening to. Is she a psychotically fractured personality, channeling the stern spirit of her elders? If so, the essence of her madness is that it contains — and transcends — sanity. Or is God actually speaking through her? Or is it both at once? When Jan is injured on the rig and paralyzed from the neck down, Bess’ prayers for his return appear to have been answered (though by a horrifically perverse deity). The very power of her faith has caused the accident. No wonder she’ll sacrifice anything, including herself, to save him.

Breaking the Waves is subdivided into eight chapters, each heralded by a psychedelic Day-Glo landscape and a snippet of ’70s rock — a Eurohipster’s version of stained glass and cantatas. It’s a counterpoint to the film’s darkest twist, in which Jan, demented by his paralysis, asks Bess to have sex with other men so that she can maintain their love by feeding his fantasies. She complies, picking up random locals and, with eyes full of tears, sleeping with them, a choir-girl whore in red vinyl. At this point, the film begins to meander — not because it’s gratuitously kinky, but, I think, because it isn’t quite kinky enough. Had Bess experienced a twinge of reluctant pleasure during her erotic descent, von Trier’s flirtation with the subversive would have erupted into a more potent sense of spiritual danger. But this is a minor flaw. In Breaking the Waves , Emily Watson creates the most lived-in portrait of a saint since Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc . When Bess climbs aboard a rusty sailor ship that’s a vision of hell on earth, her open-eyed sacrifice is as terrifying — and moving — as anything we’ve seen in movies this year. What’s overwhelming in Breaking the Waves is the feeling it creates that God is connected to Bess, who’s connected to Jan, who is reconnected to life itself. Von Trier has forged a myth of modern romantic faith that could haunt almost anyone into believing. A

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Breaking the Waves

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Look closely at the actress in the photo below. Her name is Emily Watson. She is 29, British and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. This is her first movie, and her knockout performance heralds one of the most extraordinary film debuts in ages.

Watson plays Bess, a virginal lass living in a remote village in Scotland during the 1970s. Bess shocks her strict Calvinist community — its church doesn’t even feature the vanity of bells — by marrying a lusty Scandinavian oil rigger, Jan (Stellan Skarsgard), who suffers a paralyzing accident that leads Bess to have degrading sex with strangers. The film, from Danish writer and director Lars von Trier ( Zentropa , The Xingdom ), needs some explaining. Watson’s luminous portrayal goes straight to the heart.

Breaking the Waves won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes, but you can’t watch it without hearing some member of the audience hoot at von Trier’s mad mix of spirituality and perversion. “The strength of my films is that they are easy to mock,” says von Trier, who dares us to leap over the usual boundaries. He makes that leap with his rigorous passion, the raw beauty of Robby Mneller’s cinematography (a hand-held camera is used to sensational effect) and Watson’s unique radiance.

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ess’ introduction to sex by Jan, forcefully played by Skarsgard, has an uncommon carnal intimacy. She rubs his belly, brushes her fingers through his pubic hair and plays with his penis as if she’s just discovered fucking, which, of course, she has. Her mother (Sandra Voe) and friend (the excellent Katrin Cartlidge) put her fixation down to simple-mindedness. But sex has liberated Bess. Her happiness with Jan is uncontained. In her talks with God — she does his voice in a deep register — Bess is afraid that she will be punished for loving too much.

an’s accident reinforces that belief. He asks her to help him get off by having sex with other men and telling him the details. Horrified, she obeys, thinking that her devotion will cure him. When an attempt to seduce Jan’s handsome doctor (Adrian Rawlins) fails, she jerks off an old man on a bus and takes up hooking in hot pants on a trawler that is run by a sadist (Udo Kier). Von Trier sets up Bess for tragedy and his movie for a miracle. Whether or not you buy the bell-ringing finale, you won’t be unmoved. “Waves” is a spellbinder.

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Breaking The Waves Review

18 Oct 1996

159 minutes

Breaking The Waves

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier's work has been distinctive for his sardonic outlook and his gimmicky preoccupation with arty technique. This, his English language debut, which won the 1996 Jury Prize at Cannes, arouses more emotion. You'll leave weeping or arguing, but certainly not bored by a tale that ranges between the weird, the wonderful and outrageous.

Despite the pursed lips of relations and church elders in a remote Scottish village in the 1970s, devout, innocent young Bess (Watson) marries oil rig worker Jan (Skarsgard). The austerity of her environment is contrasted sharply with Bess's warmth, affection, and the rapture she finds in sex with her Scandinavian husband. Then we realise the reason for everyone's concern; Bess is a sweet, happy girl but definitely not right in the head. She is unable to bear separation from Jan, and when he is brought back from the rig paralysed after an accident, her obsession adds to his despair. They arrive at a bizarre arrangement; he urges her to take a lover, she interprets this as a spiritual mission.

The development of their bond from misunderstanding to tragic, twisted sacrifice is, frankly, creepy and infuriating. Bess's conversations with God, especially, resemble a clumsy Exorcist spoof, and one is tempted to side with the contingent who reckon she should be in a padded cell. The perverse convolutions of the second hour are also particularly hard going. It's here that credulity and patience become strained to breaking point. But von Trier is intent on the miraculousness inherent in love and faith, and miracles are duly provided in a daring and exalting send-off - repayment with interest for the ordeal by which it has been obtained.

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Breaking the Waves Reviews

[An] earnest, yet harrowing, heartbreaker...

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2023

Von Trier’s patent insincerity and facetiousness could be read as a satire on movie emotionalism, or as its own kind of conceptual art. Either way, it’s quite an experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 4, 2023

There may be no way to prepare for the shock of Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves, a film that accumulates moral momentum as it rolls on and bears down on you in its last half hour like a lightning strike.

Full Review | Dec 27, 2022

Emily Watson gives this musty spiritualism a flesh and-blood sympathetic center. Her purity of emotion, be it bliss, fear or sorrow, are convincingly unactorly and the camera -- even Von Trier's handheld pseudo-documentary one -- loves her face.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 22, 2019

There are few movies around that take such huge risks: this is high-wire filmmaking, without a net of irony.

Full Review | Feb 26, 2018

Gloomy '90s drama has cursing, nudity, mature themes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 18, 2017

Both a ferocious love story and a tale of the triumph of vital individual faith over ossified and corrupt organized religion.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 3, 2014

Issues of faith, devotion, sexuality and divine intervention are at the center of this daring and provocative piece that placed writer-director Lars von Trier on the international map.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2014

It's a testament to Emily Watson's astounding performance as Bess that she comes across as more than a von Trier construct; she's a woman of boundless passion, who follows her faith wherever it takes her.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 15, 2014

Von Trier has forged a myth of modern romantic faith that could haunt almost anyone into believing.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Sep 7, 2011

Formally, the film is a tour de force. As it is stylistically, so is it thematically.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2010

Von Trier may put his characters and the viewer through the ringer, yet his empathy toward both is unmistakable.

Full Review | Sep 1, 2009

Here is a film that makes you feel like you've read the novel, seen the movie, and lived the life of a protagonist more empathetic than any other. You just might need a stiff drink afterward.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Aug 30, 2009

The performance from newcomer Emily Watson is the centerpiece of this spiritual journey.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009

A powerful tear-jerker romantic drama that intriguingly also brings religion into the mix.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 6, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 5, 2006

It's a remarkable achievement for all concerned, with Katrin Cartlidge, as Bess's widowed sister-in-law, sharing the acting laurels with the radiant Emily Watson, and writer/director Lars von Trier building the emotional and dramatic intensity ...

Full Review | Jun 24, 2006

The synopsis doesn't begin to do justice to the psychological and emotional complexities of the tale.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 15, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 4, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 29, 2005

MPAA Rating

Produced by, released by, breaking the waves (1996), directed by lars von trier.

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Synopsis by Don Kaye

Characteristics, related movies.

October 4, 1996 Breaking the Waves By JANET MASLIN isky does not begin to describe "Breaking the Waves," the raw, crazy tour-de-force that is the frenzied highlight of the New York Film Festival this year. Courting and sometimes winning ridicule, daring to fuse true love with lurid exploitation and pure religious faith, the Danish director Lars von Trier has created a fierce, wrenchingly passionate film about the struggles of a shy young woman who is goodness personified. Truly, bells ring in heaven for a heroine like this. Yet von Trier, the famously eccentric Danish director of "Zentropa" and "The Kingdom" (one of his current projects is a thriller filmed in yearly three-minute segments, which he plans to finish in 2004), also has no qualms about dragging his film's gentle Bess through the mud. With a plot that owes as much to the Marquis de Sade as it does to higher-minded sources, von Trier begins his film as a powerfully carnal love story and eventually leaves it, by his own description, "treading on the verge of kitsch." A narrative path leading from the sincere to the ludicrous, and culminating in a final image of flabbergasting transcendance, gives "Breaking the Waves" its surprising power. The film's visceral effectiveness is heightened further by the intimacy of Robby Muller's vigorous hand-held cinematography and by von Trier's formula-free affectations, which sustain their peculiar discipline while also indulging the film maker's every whim. "For more intellectual audiences the style will excuse the tears," von Trier has said mischievously about these tactics. "The intellectuals will be able to permit themselves to cry because the story is so refined." Indeed, audiences for "Breaking the Waves" can be expected to spend an unusually long time studying the closing credits, regaining their composure after having been put through von Trier's wringer. The film's final impact is stunning enough to justify a few yawns and snickers along the way. Set in a tiny coastal Scottish village, effectively severed from the rest of the world, "Breaking the Waves" begins with the rhapsodic transformation of Bess (Emily Watson, making an astonishing screen debut) from a sheltered innocent into a passionate wife. Early in the film, this fragile creature is married to a hulking, handsome oil-rig worker named Jan (Stellan Skarsgard) and falls sensually in love beyond her wildest dreams. The frank carnality of these early scenes sets a tone of muscular physicality that is one of the film's essential attributes. It conveys the full range of Bess's happiness and gives horrific impact to the tragedy that follows. Desperately attached to her new husband, Bess wails in grief when he sails back out to sea. Though she is considered simple-minded by her neighbors in this harsh, forbidding Calvinist community, Bess often expresses her longings with such animal intensity; she also articulates her prayers as two-way talks with a reproachful God. Chiding herself as unworthy in that stern voice, Bess still dares to pray for Jan's return. She gets her wish with the malevolent fatefulness of a ghost story or a campfire tale. The audience must watch in horror as von Trier emphasizes every threatening clank of the oil machinery, and every glimpse of heedless playfulness from Jan and his friends. Then the accident occurs. Jan returns home grievously injured, and now he is suddenly bitter toward his bride. Jan sees Bess's sexuality as a mocking reminder of his loss. So far this is melodrama; then it goes mad. With a pornographer's ingenuity, Jan thinks of a way to rekindle his own sexual vitality while testing Bess's devotion. Without Bess's help in this, he says he will die. So the film follows wide-eyed Bess off the deep end, through an odyssey involving red vinyl hot pants, degrading sex and a brief, leering appearance by Udo Kier. Adrian Rawlins, who plays Jan's doctor, prompts an inadvertent laugh in his first scene just by looking handsome enough to signal where this new side of the plot is headed. And as "Breaking the Waves" requires Bess to make her leap of faith, it demands one from the audience, too. It's necessary to follow this quirky, single-minded film into parts unknown, trusting that the risk will be rewarded. As von Trier fades his images into bleak natural tones, he creates a chilly and forbidding isolation for his characters. The church elders seen in "Breaking the Waves" espouse conventional thoughts of duty and punishment, displaying more faith in damnation than they do in divine mercy. Von Trier counters that rigidity with near-lunatic flourishes that prove hugely effective, if only because they burst redemptively into the film with sudden flashes of pop vitality. The occasional rainbow, rock song or computer-enhanced vista comes as an anachronistic jolt in a story that, despite its offshore oil drilling and nominal early 1970s time period, could almost be taking place a century or two earlier. Von Trier whimsically punctuates the film with chapter headings, too. Nothing about "Breaking the Waves" is more fortuitious than the choice of Ms. Watson, the former Royal Shakespeare Company actress who so fervently and glowingly embodies Bess. The role calls for a trusting, absolutely unguarded performance, and the film would have been destroyed by anything less. Ms. Watson creates Bess with a devastating immediacy, and she deeply rewards the camera's penetrating gaze. Also very good are Skarsgard as the sturdy masculine presence so vital to the story, and the coolly forceful Katrin Cartlidge as Bess's straight-talking, sensible sister-in-law. She represents the rationality that "Breaking the Waves" eventually leaves far behind. PRODUCTION NOTES BREAKING THE WAVES This film is not rated. Cast: Emily Watson (Bess), Stellan Skarsgard (Jan), Adrian Rawlins (Doctor), Katrin Cartlidge (Dodo) and Udo Kier (Man on the Trawler). Written and directed by Lars von Trier; director of photography, Robby Muller; edited by Anders Refn; music by Ray Williams; production designer, Karl Juliusson; produced by Vibeke Windelv and Peter Aalbaek Jensen; released by October Films. Opens commercially on Nov. 15. Running time: 158 minutes.

Breaking the Waves

• Blu-ray/DVD edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• April 10 2014

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Lars von Trier became an international sensation with this galvanizing realist fable about sex and spiritual transcendence. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Emily Watson stuns as Bess, a simple, pious newlywed in a tiny Scottish village who gives herself up to a shocking form of martyrdom after her husband (Stellan Skarsgård) is paralyzed in an oil rig accident. Breaking the Waves , both brazen and tender, profane and pure, is an examination of the expansiveness of faith and of its limits.

Picture 8/10

Extras 8/10

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Breaking the Waves

• Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.
• Drama set in a repressed, deeply religious community in the north of Scotland, where a naive young woman named Bess McNeil meets and falls in love with Danish oil-rig worker Jan. 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 behavior, the more she comes to believe that her actions are guided by God and are helping Jan recover. — Jonathan Broxton <[email protected]>
• Bess McNeill is a young woman living in a conservative coastal village in Scotland. Against the wishes of her church she marries Jan, a Scandinavian worker on an oil rig. She is insanely in love with Jan and can't bear it when he leaves to do his shift on the oil rig. Then Jan is injured at work and everything changes. — grantss
• Bess McNeill, a Scottish lass living in a small town in the highlands, is considered mentally simple. A devout Calvinist like most in her town, she often speaks to her version of God, who, channeling through her in return, often chastises her for what she considers her selfishness in always wanting more than she has. Despite the objections of the church elders, Bess marries Jan Nyman, a Dane, a North Sea oil rig worker and an atheist. Jan away working on the rig more often than he will be in Scotland with her, Bess does not handle his absence well, she, in one of those conversations with God, asking him to send Jan home sooner than the ten days she has to wait from the time of that conversation. Due to the circumstances of that visit home by Jan, Bess goes to extraordinary lengths to prove her devotion to God by also proving her complete love for Jan, she certain of the desired outcome in the end, which most people looking in would, and do, consider irrational. — Huggo
• Chapter 1 - Bess Gets Married: In a backward religious village in the north of Scotland, the naive, immature, pure, susceptible, repressed and emotionally unstable Bess McNeill gets married with Danish worker Jan Nyman that works on a drilling rig. Chapter 2 - Life with Jan: Bess has a wonderful honeymoon with Jan, making love everywhere with her beloved husband. Chapter 3 - Life Alone: Jan has to embark to work in the oil-rig and Bess misses him. She prays to God to send Jan back home. There is a blowout in the drill deck and Jan is seriously injured, becoming completely paralyzed and the doctor diagnoses that he would never walk again. Chapter 4 - Jan's Illness: Bess talks to God and blames herself for the accident of her husband. Jan tries to convince her to have sex with other men. The three remaining chapters see Bess and Jan's life evolve. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• BREAKING the WAVES The story was about love, faith and confidence. A small coastal village in North Scotland, in 1970s.The village neighborhood didnt like foreigners, especially when those people worshiped different religions. The public of this village were very pious. In un-developed regions, women arent allowed to participate in the funeral ceremonies. The film was the first film of a trilogy, the names of which Golden Heart series. The movie was recorded by a hand-held camera, that brings audiences into the place. This technique made the fiction more realistic. The main character was Bess who had some mental problems and a childish manner. She had to be taken care of by her family members. She was talking with herself with a God Voice and tried to find a way to endure her pain. In the early chapters, we saw, Bess and Jan got married, had an incredible honeymoon and sexual experience. When Jan started to work, she missed him very much and begged God for the return her husband immediately. Everything changed with an accident. When Jan was in the oil-rig, he injured his neck and completely paralyzed. When Bess learned the accident, first she was very happy but then she started to blame herself. Their sex relations remained to fall down that situation. Jan asked her to take a lover and tell him the details. Because Jan knew Besss church wouldnt permit divorce. What do we think about Jans suggestion? Did he really want to get rid of her, for her sake? Or did he just think about himself? I think the story didnt answer this question. We should think about a man who was completely paralyzed and became selfish. Dodo, who was Besss sister-in-law, said sickness is a mighty power They quarreled about Besss situation. Jan believed Bess has more strength than them. Because of the whole painful process, Jan attempted to kill himself. When he failed, he asked Dodo for help for his own suicide. Dodo denied his request, she thought the second death would be very damaging for Bess. Bess had recently lost her brother. On the other side, Bess started to commit adultery. She believed in God and convinced herself if she did some sacrifices, Jan would be able to recovered. When she mentioned her bus experience, Jans reaction was unclearly. Was he relieved or annoyed? I think the most impressive chapter was the sixth one called Faith. In that chapter she started to go cheap bars and chose the ugliest guys. She punished herself that way. Meanwhile her reputation had become very damaged in the small village. Only Jans doctor and Dodo realized her tough condition. Bess had attempted to seduce the doctor too. Maybe he also liked her too, but didnt want to use her case. Everyone around her started to become aware of her sinful behavior. They even didnt tolerate her attitude. Her church, her neighbors, even her mother, everyone around her rejected her. In those kinds of small villages, people can be very cruel about morality. Which is the biggest sin? Who are the biggest sinners in this condition? Social rules are pressure in a small society. Actually, in this story everybody suffered a lot but they pretended to remain innocent while they pushed her down the cliff. I think miracles arent always fair. They can cause some kind of miserable consequences. At the end of the movie the unexpected miracle happened; the man recovered but he also lost his wife. The villagers wanted to punish her body too. They refused to bury her appropriately. Jan stole the body and gave her a real funeral. She buried at sea with the sound of bells. Here we have a story which argues what is right or wrong in love. If we were Bess, how many of us could be strong in love? ? To love a man and never hesitate to do some kind of tough sacrifices

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All 11 Fight Scenes In Road House 2024, Ranked

• Hard-hitting fight scenes with expert precision make the new 'Road House' a thrilling watch for action lovers.
• Elwood Dalton's ruthless tactics and tragic past add an edge to the chaotic violence in the remake.
• Director Doug Liman makes the fight scenes leap out from the screen.

Just like the original movie starring Patrick Swayze, the new remake of Road House features plenty of brilliant fight scenes. The 1989 version of Road House is the ultimately guilty pleasure movie, packed with scenes of lowlife scum getting summarily beaten down by a stoic bouncer. The remake recaptures this crowd-pleasing feel, but it also features fight scenes which are laced with incredible tension. There are plenty of differences between the two movies, not least Dalton's UFC past in the 2024 version, but the remake is just as chaotically violent.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC champion who retired after killing an opponent in the ring. Rather than cobbling together an unsatisfying life scaring underground MMA fighters out of their winnings, Dalton takes a job as a bouncer at a rowdy bar in the Florida Keys. Road House has been receiving positive reviews , and its hard-hitting fight scenes are a big reason why. Director Doug Liman previously worked on the action thrillers The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow , and he makes Road House 's fight scenes leap out from the screen.

Road House is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video.

Road House Review: Doug Liman's Remake Is Bigger, Louder & Slightly Dumber Than The Original

Dalton breaking jack's fingers, dalton can incapacitate people with surgical precision.

Dalton often shows signs of his incredible understanding of human anatomy, presumably learned from years as a professional fighter. He knows exactly how to inflict the most damage with the absolute minimum effort, and this is how he turns the table on Jack when he pulls a gun on him. Jack thinks that waving a gun at Dalton will be enough to force him into his car, but Dalton doesn't break a sweat. He tells Jack very calmly that all he needs to do is break his index finger and his middle finger, and he follows through.

Dalton's Throat-Punch Kill

Dalton stops holding back after brandt's men burn down the book store.

One other instance of Dalton using his knowledge of the human body is when he kills Vince with a single punch to the throat. He explains that he's probably broken his hyoid bone and collapsed his trachea, but either result will stop him being able to breathe. It's an uncharacteristically cold-blooded moment from Dalton, and it suggests that mentally he could be back on the path to the dark place that saw him kill one of his opponents in the ring. This moment could be a tribute to the original Road House , in which Dalton rips out a man's throat.

Dell Being Killed By The Crocodile

Dell thinks he has the upper hand on dalton, but he ends up being eaten.

Dell doesn't take his initial loss to Dalton lightly. As soon as he's out of the hospital, he tries to run Dalton down in his car. When that doesn't work, he ambushes Dalton on his boat, aptly named "the Boat," with a shotgun in his hand. Just as Jack finds out, having a gun doesn't necessarily give you the advantage over Dalton in a fight. Dalton quickly disarms Dell and knocks him overboard. He tries to rescue him before a crocodile snaps him up, but he's too late. As everyone in Glass Key knows, "crocs hide their food."

Dalton & Ellie Fighting Brandt On His Boat

The waves level the playing field.

As Brandt tries to escape from his burning yacht, he takes a smaller speedboat with Ellie alongside as a hostage. Dalton commandeers Knox's boat and tracks him down, and he teams up with Ellie to fight Brandt as the boat is tossed around by the ocean. The waves add some extra jeopardy to the fight, but Brandt is no real fighter. If it was a regular fight on flat ground, Dalton probably could have killed him in seconds. He loses control of the boat before too long and gets catapulted into the bar, setting up Road House 's ending .

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Billy breaking up a fight at the road house, dalton's apprentice learns how to take out the trash.

Rather than taking on every rowdy customer who comes to the bar, Dalton decides to train Billy and Reef as bouncers so that they can deal with the everyday troublemakers. They could hardly ask for a better teacher, as shown by how quickly their skills develop. Dalton is surprisingly hands-off in his approach. He tells Billy exactly what to do when a fight breaks out and one man has a concealed knife. Billy takes a big step back and pops him in the nose. Dalton can leave later knowing that the Road House is in safe hands.

Dalton's Career-Ending UFC Fight

Road house's ufc scenes use real-life fighters and pundits.

Director Doug Liman uses POV shots in Dalton's darkest moments, and his fight with Harris is the darkest of all.

Conor McGregor isn't the only UFC fighter in Road House . Jay Hieron plays Jax "Jetway" Harris, Dalton's opponent in his championship bout. Road House drip feeds the story of Dalton's fight throughout the movie. Eventually, it becomes clear why the event haunts Dalton's dreams. Dalton kills Harris in the ring by refusing to stop. Director Doug Liman uses POV shots in Dalton's darkest moments, and his fight with Harris is the darkest of all. The spectacle of the big occasion makes Dalton's trauma even worse. The cameras flash around him as he begins to understand what he has just done.

Post Malone's Bareknuckle Boxing Fight

The rapper is surprisingly convincing in his cameo.

Post Malone is one of the most surprising members of the Road House cast , along with Conor McGregor. He plays Carter, a bareknuckle fighter in the movie's first scene. Fittingly, the movie opens with a punch to the face, as Carter takes down a much larger opponent. The ring announcer claims that Carter has taken down six challengers in a row, but he backs down from fighting Dalton when he recognizes who he is. Road House starts with a bang , immediately signaling its intention to be just as action-packed as the 1989 original.

Knox Destroying The Bar With A Golf Club

Conor mcgregor's introduction shakes things up.

As soon as Conor McGregor is introduced as Knox, strutting boldly down the street in the nude, Road House kicks into another gear.

As soon as Conor McGregor is introduced as Knox, strutting boldly down the street in the nude, Road House kicks into another gear. He throws his weight around with Brandt's crew before strolling into the Road House like he owns it with a golf club in his hands. Knox brings a whirlwind of chaos with him, smashing glasses as he almost dances his way through the bar. He seems to enjoy violence and pain, and he picks fights with bystanders just to cause a nuisance. He even tears through the netting which protects the band.

Knox & Dalton's First Road House Fight

Dalton meets his match at last.

After Dalton decides that Knox's antics have gone too far, he steps in to confront him. Despite the chaos all around them as an all-out bar fight ensues, Knox and Dalton remain utterly focused on one another. Their fight is the first time that Dalton truly seems like he's in danger. Even being stabbed in the abdomen and hit by a train is less threatening than Knox tossing him behind the bar and slamming his fists through glass bottles as if they are made of tissue paper. Dalton walks away from the Road House, seemingly defeated.

Road House 2024 Soundtrack Guide: Every Song & When They Play

Dalton taking down dell's gang at the road house, dalton finally shows what he's capable of.

Dalton's legend precedes him everywhere he goes , and this builds him up to be a fearsome warrior before he ever even throws a punch. Carter quits his fight as soon as he sees Dalton in the ring, and Billy says he is a big fan as soon as he meets him. Dalton has a lot to live up to, and his first fight scene shows that he's worthy of the hype. He asks Dell if he has medical insurance first, and then he brutally dispatches him and his four friends. Dalton's bone-cracking, head-smashing skills are put on display for all to see, but he never breaks a sweat.

Dalton & Knox's Final Showdown

Road house's final fight is also its best.

Dalton and Knox's second fight is a beautifully choreographed mixture of MMA mastery and sheer power.

Road House saves the very best for last. Knox and Dalton's final fight is just as incredible as the first one, but Dalton no longer reins in his killer instincts. Their fight is a beautifully choreographed mixture of MMA mastery and sheer power. They tumble around the ruins of the bar, grappling on the floor for a while, before both tiring and going blow-for-blow with the power of two heavyweight boxers. When Dalton seems finished, he draws on something extra to fight back and brutally stabs Knox with two broken pieces of wood. Road House 's post-credits scene shows Knox alive, setting up a potential rematch for the pair.

‘When the Light Breaks’ Review: A Maelstrom of Youthful Emotion Plays Out Between Two Sunsets

Two young women grieve for the same lover in this quiet but intensely felt miniature from Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson, opening this year's Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes.

By Guy Lodge

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In the morning, Diddi is to fly home and break up with Klara. To Una, together-forever-ness awaits. But a tracking shot of ceiling lights in a Reykjavik traffic tunnel — as menacing in its patient composure as the previous night’s sunset was ecstatic — spells doom, as the late Jóhann Jóhannsson’s solemnly ethereal recording of “Odi et Amo” presages a catastrophic tunnel fire. With Diddi among the many killed, Una is left to find her own place in a national tragedy, the communal reach of its impact doing nothing to dull her inchoate sense of abandonment and isolation. As the day unfolds, she drifts between friends, family and solitude, uneasy in any company, unhappy alone. Only Gunni (Mikael Kaaber), Diddi’s brother, knows the true nature of their relationship, though there’s no time for heart-to-hearts, least of all when the innocently devastated Klara arrives in town.

Una’s initial impulse is to avoid the other woman, though Klara, naively or otherwise, gravitates nervously toward her. Perhaps the equal intensity of their grief is something of a magnetic force. As Diddi’s friends drink and dance through the afternoon, the two young women are paired in an unspoken kinship that quickly escalates, if only for this one day, into a deeper, more needful understanding. Cool but not emotionally aloof, Hall’s sharp, tightly wound performance implies a personality given to tension at the best of times, in need of close human contact to draw out her happiness. As it is, she’s both rigidly poised and visibly shattered: The plain portraiture of Olsson’s camerawork gives her puffy-eyed devastation nowhere to hide.

Rúnarsson’s sparse script isn’t interested in engineering more seismic confrontation or catharsis, as “When the Light Breaks” instead trades in the kind of tentative realizations and ambiguities more commonly found in short-form storytelling. That can give the film a softness, a gauziness even, that is initially unexpected in a story so grave. Yet it comes to feel appropriate for a dramatization of a day when everything changes, but no clear future immediately presents itself. In each other, Una and Klara find something to cling to in the haze, at least for the moment. Another sunset is coming, and perhaps they’d rather not watch it alone. “It’ll be strange to wake up tomorrow,” Klara muses. “Do you know what you’ll do?” It’s a question for another day, and another film.

Reviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, May 7, 2024. In Cannes Film Festival — Un Certain Regard (opener). Running time: 77 MIN. (Original title: "Ljósbrot")

• Production: (Iceland-Netherlands-Croatia-France) A Compass Films, Halibut presentation in co-production with Revolver Amsterdam, MP Filmska Produkcija, Eaux Vives Productions, Jour2Fête. (World sales: The Party Film Sales, Paris.) Producers: Heather Millard, Rúnar Rúnarsson. Executive producers: Claudia Hausfeld, Lilja Ósk Snorradóttir , Þórður Jónsson. Co-producers: Raymond van der Kaaij, Igor A. Nola, Mike Downey, Xenia Maingot, Sarah Chazelle.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Rúnar Rúnarsson. Camera: Sophia Olsson. Editor: Andri Steinn Guðjónsson. Music: Jóhann Jóhannsson.
• With: Elín Hall, Mikael Kaaber, Katla Njálsdóttir, Baldur Einarsson, Gunnar Hrafn Kristjánsson, Ágúst Wigum. (Icelandic, English dialogue)

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‘when the light breaks’ review: minor-key icelandic drama paints a stirring portrait of grief.

Rúnar Rúnarsson's feature, which opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes, chronicles a day in the life of young adults dealing with an unexpected loss.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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A pair of young adults sit on a rocky coast staring at the sun as it hovers on the horizon, casting an ochre glow over the landscape. They trade dreams, jokes and promises while smoking a joint. She teases him about being horny. He vows to break up with his girlfriend, so they no longer have to hide their relationship. Later, in bed, nestling into the grooves of each other’s bodies, they will excitedly murmur their visions of tomorrow. 

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Neon buys joachim trier's and renate reinsve's 'sentimental value' , netflix rejected david cronenberg's 'the shrouds' as a series, director says: "i felt i can't let this die", when the light breaks.

Without ever working above a whisper, Runar Runarsson’s When the Light Breaks ( Ljósbrot ) finds distinctive and unexpectedly stirring ways to portray grief and untimely death. It follows a group of young adults — chief among them Una — in the Icelandic city as they cope with the unexpected loss of Diddi, chronicling how they navigate the rough emotional terrain. The film, which opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes , marks the Icelandic director’s second time on the Croisette. Runarsson’s first feature, Volcano , debuted at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2011. 

An appreciation for grief’s minor moments coupled with a striking visual language elevate this slender drama. Runarsson is attuned to the details of loss and recognizes the narrative power of these instances. He lingers where others might cut, hordes what, at first, seems disposable and homes in on the familiar long enough to render it uncanny. Working with cinematographer Sophia Olsson, the director arranges his scenes like a painter does a still life. While there are plenty of intimate shots, some of the most poignant moments in When the Light Breaks are shot from a distance, when the loneliness of each character is acutely felt despite their bustling surroundings. These compositions have surprising emotional impact and a clarifying depth. 

The most affecting parts of When the Light Breaks unfold between Una and Klara, two young women whose respective mourning processes, at first, seem to wrestle for the group’s attention. Klara doesn’t know that Diddi was rushing out of the city to break up with her, and Una promises Gunni that she won’t say anything. The vow curtails her ability to grieve, and Hall, in an understated performance, translates that to haunting effect. When Una stares at the others as they hug Klara and soothe her with reminders of how much Diddi loved her, one senses the flashes of jealousy. The two also share poignant moments, like when they return to the spot where audiences first met Diddi and Una to watch the sun, still peeking above the horizon. 

Kaaber, as Diddi’s roommate Gunni, also gives a strong performance, deftly conveying the dual requirements of his character: navigating his own grief while also bridging the gap between Una and Diddi’s friends from home. The conversations between Gunni and Una have a particularly painful edge as the two young adults, inexperienced with the weight of loss, try to deal with thorny moral questions too. 

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Ukraine war latest: Armed ship destroyed in Crimea, Kyiv says; controversial US television host launches show in Russia

Ukraine says it hit and destroyed the Russian missile ship Tsiklon in Crimea over the weekend. Meanwhile, analysts say Moscow is seeking to draw out Kyiv's forces - as Putin makes another significant change to his cabinet.

Tuesday 21 May 2024 23:00, UK

• Kyiv claims it has destroyed last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles in Crimea
• Tucker Carlson launches new show in Russia
• Putin sacks minister in new sign of shift in war strategy
• European country now pushing to let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with Western weapons
• Russia using 'understaffed and incohesive forces' in bid to draw out Ukrainian troops
• Big picture: What you need to know as war enters new week

We're pausing our coverage of the Ukraine war for the moment.

Scroll through the blog below to catch up on today's developments.

Vladimir Putin has praised the late president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, and said he was a "reliable partner".

Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border over the weekend along with his foreign minister and seven others.

Speaking on the leader, Mr Putin said he was "a man of his word" who carried out any agreements the pair made.

"He was truly a reliable partner, a man sure of himself, who acted in the national interest," Russian news agencies quoted Mr Putin as telling Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament.

"He was, of course, a man of his word and it was always good to work with him. What I mean is if we came to an agreement on something, you could be sure the agreement was carried out."

The Kremlin leader asked Mr Volodin, who will be attending memorial events in Iran, to pass on "words of our sincere condolences in connection with this tragedy".

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has strengthened political, trade and military ties with Iran in a deepening relationship that the US and Israel view with concern.

Heavy fighting in the Pokrovsk area in eastern Ukraine has forced Ukrainian troops to engage in "manoeuvres," the Ukrainian military's general staff have said.

Their report said Pokrovsk, northwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk, remains the front's "hottest" sector.

"In some areas, the situation requires our troops to engage in manoeuvres," the general staff report reads.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has referred to the region and adjacent areas as "extraordinarily difficult" in his nightly video address.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said allies are taking too long when it comes to decisions on military support for Ukraine.

In an interview with Reuters, the Ukrainian leader said every decision which everyone came to was "late by around one year".

"But it is what it is: one big step forward, but before that two steps back. So we need to change the paradigm a little bit," he said.

"When we're quick, they fall behind. And then there's a gap - six, eight months of unpassed (aid) packages, and then two-three months of supplies - and a year goes by. We would like not to lose the advantage."

Mr Zelenskyy also said Ukraine had never used Western weapons on Russian territory.

A senior Russian diplomat has said that the EU plan to channel profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine would have "unpredictable" consequences, according to the TASS news agency.

According to TASS, Kirill Logvinov, Russia's acting permanent representative to the EU in Brussels, told Russia journalists: "The only predictable thing is that those in the EU will be obliged sooner or later to return to our country what has been stolen."

For context : In March the European Commission proposed transferring to Ukraine profits generated by Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe.

The plan would see 90% channeled through the European Peace Facility fund to buy weapons for Ukraine. 

The rest would be used for recovery and reconstruction.

Russia's defence ministry has said it has begun a round of drills involving tactical nuclear weapons. 

The exercises were announced by Russian authorities this month in response to remarks by senior Western officials about the possibility of deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.

It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises.

According to the ministry's statement, the first stage of the new drills include nuclear-capable Kinzhal and Iskander missiles.

The maneuvers are taking place in the southern military district, which consists of Russian regions in the south.

A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other dissidents must  remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism.

Antonina Favorskaya was arrested in March. 

She is accused of collecting material, producing and editing videos and publications for Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which had been outlawed as extremist by Russian authorities, according to court officials.

Today, Moscow's Basmanny district court ordered that she remain in custody until at least 3 August.

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, said earlier that Ms Favorskaya did not publish anything on the foundation's platforms and suggested that Russian authorities have targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist.

Former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson has launched his own show in Russia.

The controversial US media personality, who this year became the first Western journalist to interview Vladimir Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine, will host his show on the state-owned Russia 24 (Rossiya 24).

In the first episode, Carlson will discuss the dangers of ticks and Lyme disease.

Who is Carlson?

Carlson, who has been a vocal supporter of Mr Putin in the past, was sacked from Fox News in April last year.

He took up the prime-time weekday evenings spot on Fox News in 2016 with his show Tucker Carlson Tonight, and quickly established himself as a key player in the network and an influential voice in Republican politics.

The presenter often embraced conspiracy theories and far-right issues. He repeatedly questioned the efficacy of COVID vaccines and compared mandates to "Nazi experiments".

While he found success with viewers, his inflammatory comments caused some advertisers to distance themselves from the programme.

After his departure from Fox News he rebooted his show on X last year, calling Elon Musk's site the last big remaining platform to allow free speech.

Ukraine says it has destroyed the last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles that was stationed on the occupied peninsula of Crimea.

It comes after we reported earlier comments by Ukraine's military, which said they had hit the Russian missile ship Tsiklon (see post at 3.09pm).

Ukraine's military reported conducting a long-range attack that destroyed the Russian minesweeping navy vessel on Sunday and said it needed more time to confirm what else had been damaged.

"According to updated information, the Ukrainian defence forces hit a Russian project 22800 Tsiklon missile ship in Sevastopol, on the night of 19 May," the general staff said today.

The Ukrainian navy later said on X that the vessel had been "destroyed".

Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said the Tsiklon was Russia's "last cruise missile carrier" based on the peninsula.

Tsiklon never fired a cruise missile while on active service, Mr Pletenchuk said in televised comments.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 and is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters at Sevastopol.

The Russian defence ministry has not commented.

European Union countries say they have reached an agreement to use the profits from frozen Russian assets to provide military support to Ukraine and help rebuild the war-torn country.

The 27-nation EU is holding around €210bn (£179bn) in Russian central bank assets, most of it frozen in Belgium, in retaliation for Moscow's war against Ukraine.

It estimates that the interest on that money could provide around €3bn (£2.56bn) each year.

Ukraine is desperate for more weapons and ammunition as Russia presses its military advantage.

EU headquarters said 90% of the money would be put into a special fund known as the European Peace Facility that many EU countries already use to get reimbursed for arms and ammunition they send to Ukraine.

The other 10% would be put into the EU budget. The programmes that this money funds would help to bolster Ukraine's defence industry or to help with reconstruction, should some countries object to their share being used for military purposes.

A small group of member states, notably Hungary, refuse to supply weapons to Ukraine.

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