Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, 66, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. According to the production company Zentropa, which the director founded with producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen in 1992, von Trier is “in a good mood and his symptoms are being treated” as he wraps up the third season of The Kingdom. The information comes from Variety.
Production company Zentropa added that the filmmaker will be attending some press events after the series’ release later this year. The Kingdom was released on Danish television in 1994 and returns to screens in 2022 with the release of Season 3. The production stars Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards) and Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies).
In addition to the series, Lars von Trier is known as the director of the films “Dancing in the Dark” (2000), “Dogville” (2003), “Melancholia” (2011) and the controversial “Antichrist” (2009). Nymphomaniac” (2009. 2014) and “The House That Jack Built” (2018).
The director accumulates controversy in his career. In 2011, he was banned from the Cannes Film Festival for seven years for saying at a press conference that he had “sympathy” with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. He has also been accused of molestation by singer Björk, protagonist of “Dancing in the Dark”.
“I realized that it is universal that a director can touch and bother his actresses at will and that the institution of cinema allows it. When I resisted the director’s repeated attacks, he got angry and punished me, creating an illusion for the crew. where I was labeled ‘difficult,'” the Icelandic artist said in a 2017 social media post.
After Björk’s ad, nine other women reported to the newspaper Politiken about cases of harassment and abuse at the Zentropa studios. Peter Aalbæk Jensen, who is among the named attackers, responded to the publication “that he does not remember” the reported situations.