Lars Von Trier Has Almost Completed the Screenplay For His Final Film

Back in March, THR had an odd update about how Lars Von Trier was on track to finish the 15th—and likely final—film of his career, “After,” and that it might soon premiere at a festival. It didn’t make much sense considering the slow and secretive process of the project.

Now, we finally have an update from Von Trier’s longtime friend and producer, Peter Aalbæk Jensen, via Ekkof Film, who confirms that the film hasn’t even been shot yet and that the screenplay for “After” is supposed to be completed this month.

The film hasn’t been made, so there’s nothing that can be shown at a festival. Before the summer break, I heard that Lars might, with a bit of luck, have the screenplay written around August. That’s something all of us who love Trier’s films can look forward to.

“After” tackles life after death. It “draws heavily” on Lars Von Trier’s own thoughts about “mortality and transience.” The film recently received 1.3 million kroner in funding from the Danish Film Institute—an unusually large amount.

Due to his struggles with Parkinson’s, Von Trier now lives part-time in a nursing home, but Jensen says the situation would not deter the filmmaker from directing “After.”

Physically, Lars is affected, but there’s nothing wrong with his mind. That’s what the care home helps with. He still has his own home, where he is also from time to time—depending on how he is feeling that day. “After” has always been designed so that it can be made according to Lars’s physical condition. He has always used limitations creatively, and now it is his own physical limitation that he is incorporating into the creative process.

Few would dispute the influence Von Trier has had on modern cinema. His bold vision and unmistakable style continue to resonate throughout contemporary film, with works like “Breaking the Waves,” “Melancholia,” “Dancer in the Dark,” and “Dogville” remaining powerful evidence of his legacy.

Von Trier hasn’t directed a film since 2018’s “The House That Jack Built,” a three-hour dark comedy about a serial killer played by Matt Dillon. It was provocative, disgusting, fearless, trolling—Von Trier’s best traits. In 2022, he helmed the third season of his ’90s series “The Kingdom,” which was around the time his Parkinson’s diagnosis was revealed. Since then, he hasn’t filmed anything.