Lars Von Trier’s ‘After’ Deals With Death and the Afterlife

A few months ago, Lars Von Trier's next film received funding from the Danish Film Institute, as revealed by AFP. The title of the film is "After," and Von Trier is also writing it.

I’ve been tracking this project ever since May 2024, that’s when a Euro-based producer had mentioned to me that Lars Von Trier was working on a new film. His lips were otherwise sealed when it came to details about the project. I was told a script was ready and that, if we’re lucky, Von Trier would set out to shoot the film soon.

Now we have producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen revealing first details on the film, albeit very cryptically, but it sounds like Von Trier’s recent bout with Parkinson’s and his mortality will be taking center stage in the film (via Ekko)

“Lars is developing the feature film “After,” which is about death and life after death, and it is not in danger” says Peter Aalbæk Jensen.

Apparently, given his condition, Von Trier now lives part-time at a nursing home, according to Jensen, but he promises that will not deter the filmmaker from making the film which is well on its way to shooting maybe later this year.

"After has always been designed to be made based on Lars' physical condition. He has always used limitations for something creative, and now it is his own physical limitation that he incorporates into the creative,” Jensen states.

In the fall of 2022, Von Trier announced that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 66. It was shattering news. He’s one of the great filmmakers of the last 30 or so years, definitely one of the most influential. With that, he also announced that he was “taking a break” from directing.

In August 2023, Von Trier had stated that “with any luck I should still have a few decent movies left in me”. He hasn’t directed a film since 2018’s “The House That Jack Built,” an unfairly maligned 3-hour dark comedy about the most despicable serial killer ever put on film, played by Matt Dillon. It was provocative, disgusting, fearless, trolling — Von Trier’s best traits.

Von Trier established himself as one of the great directors of cinema, his influence can be seen everywhere, and that’s thanks to films such as “Breaking the Waves,” “Melancholia,” “Dancer in the Dark” and “Dogville.”