Cannes Ends Seven Year Ban For Lars von Trier

It has been announced that Lars von Trier’s serial killer thriller, The House That Jack Built, will screen out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival (8 – 19 May), thus bringing to an end a seven-year ban for the controversial director, during which he was declared Persona Non Grata by the organisers.

At the press conference for Melancholia, which premiered at Cannes in 2011, von Trier said: “I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew … Then it turned out that I was not a Jew … I found out that I was really a Nazi which also gave me some pleasure.”

“But come on, I am not for the Second World War, and I am not against Jews. I am very much for Jews; well not too much because Israel is a pain in the ass. But still, how can I get out of this sentence… OK I’m a Nazi.”

However, von Trier later explained to Indiewire that he was brought up in an atheistic Jewish household, and to describe himself as a Nazi was a poor choice of words. He had discovered that the father he had known was not his biological father, and that his real father was a German freedom fighter. So, he actually meant that he was “on the other side of the fence”.

Lars von Trier’s latest film, The House That Jack Built, follows the evolution of serial killer Jack (Matt Dillon) over 12 years, and how he approaches each murder as a work of art. As the net closes in around him, he starts taking greater and greater risks to create his masterpiece.

Meanwhile, Jack’s thoughts, problems and motivation are played out through an ongoing conversation with the mysterious and grotesque Verge (Bruno Ganz) who talks him through dangerous and difficult manoeuvres.

The House That Jack Built is slated for a theatrical release on 29th November 2018, with a cast that also includes Sofie Gråbøl (The Killing), Riley Keough and Uma Thurman.