The Kingdom: Exodus Evaluate: A Welcome Return

October Movies/TIFF

As a part of our protection of the forty seventh annual Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant, Anna Swanson critiques the primary two episodes of Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom: Exodus. Observe together with extra protection in our Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant archives.

Lars von Trier has by no means been one for fan service, and in all probability, he by no means will likely be. However the closest that the director will most likely ever come to that is The Kingdom: Exodus. The return to this mission — certainly one of von Trier’s strangest, most tonally off-kilter, and most area of interest creations — makes you are feeling such as you’re in on a joke with the director. At the very least, that’s the case when it’s not confounding you.

A part of this sensation derives from the mere incontrovertible fact that this season exists. Exodus is the third season of The Kingdom, which aired its first two seasons some twenty-five years in the past. Since then, the filmmaker has established himself as certainly one of arthouse cinema’s best provocateurs — emphasis there may simply go on “provoke” or “auteur.” Having been invited to, awarded at, and banned from main movie festivals, von Trier has achieved as a lot fame as he has infamy. The final 20 years have seen him work predominantly in English and with some veritable A-Checklist expertise from Nicole Kidman to Kirsten Dunst. He’s at all times courted controversy, however his constant output and the caliber of expertise he’s labored with show that when von Trier calls, individuals reply.

All of that is to say that whereas the primary two seasons of The Kingdom have their share of followers, the present doesn’t rank on the prime of von Trier’s hottest creations. The present facilities on a Danish hospital known as The Kingdom, constructed on a website the place the battle between logic and the supernatural has existed for hundreds of years. The forged is generally homegrown expertise, and the language is predominantly Danish, two parts that distinction with von Trier’s most well-known movies. For him to return to the world of a mysterious Copenhagen hospital, it’s not as a result of the lots had been demanding it however as a result of he opted for it.

Exodus opens with an consciousness of its personal uncommon place within the present’s chronology. Many years have handed because the season two finale. On prime of that — and this was readily obvious throughout Exodus‘ single public screening on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant — there’s an viewers for this season who haven’t seen the present earlier than. In the event you’re in that camp of viewers, the excellent news is that the present is getting a restoration that may air on Mubi earlier than the third season premieres on the platform.

Nonetheless, if you’re accustomed to the present, you’ll immediately choose up on among the sly ways in which Exodus has integrated questions left over from the primary two seasons. There are additionally some new inquiries to ponder, together with whether or not or not the occasions of the primary two seasons even occurred within the diegetic world that Exodus exists in.

Exodus has a self-awareness, or at the very least a self-reflexivity, that distinguishes it from the remainder of The Kingdom, however it’s additionally retained quite a lot of similarity with the opposite seasons. For starters, the present continues to be deeply humorous.  It has parts of a office comedy, with slapstick humor on full show and a script with a dry wit.

One other factor retained from the sooner seasons is the forged, a lot of whom returned. Even among the many new arrivals to the present, there are acquainted faces, together with Alexander Skarsgard, who has inherited his place within the present because the Kingdom’s resident Swedish lawyer from his father. Certainly, fathers and sons are integral to lots of the present’s themes, with a sure paternal determine serving as one of many main antagonists of the present’s first two seasons. The primary two episodes of Exodus, that are all that screened at TIFF, point out within the opening credit that this specific character is again in a single kind or one other, however precisely how that performs out is unknown till at the very least episode three.

Although the implication is that extra nefarious characters are but to seem, the primary two episodes ship a major antagonist: Helmer Jr. (Mikael Persbrandt), enjoying the son of Helmer (Ernst-Hugo Järegård), an uppity Swedish physician despatched to work in Copenhagen. Helmer Jr., or as he rapidly turns into recognized, Halfmer (he’s half of his father, in spite of everything), has the aim of each elevating the Danish requirements, as he places it, and discovering why working at this hospital drove his father insane twenty years in the past. Oh, I ought to point out, in case you’re not accustomed to the contentious nature of Danish-Swedish relations, you quickly will likely be.

Primarily based on the primary two episodes of Exodus, The Kingdom is again with extra reality-bending and self-reflexivity that may distinguish it from prior seasons. However character quirks and laugh-out-loud jokes (I by no means thought I’d see a line about Tetra Paks bringing the home down) are as they’ve at all times been.

One of many variations, which is each acknowledged within the present and inevitably introduced in by viewers consciousness, is the presence and position of von Trier himself. Within the earlier seasons, every episode would finish with von Trier standing earlier than a curtain whereas recounting the occasions that had occurred and teasing what’s to come back. With the present’s creator greeting you whereas the credit run and looking out just like the cat who ate the canary, there was by no means any doubt that von Trier was fairly happy with himself and all of the methods he managed to baffle and titillate his viewers.

Now, along with his Parkinson’s analysis not too long ago publicly revealed, von Trier is undoubtedly conscious of what this might imply for his potential future output. In Exodus, von Trier has taken a literal step again, now figuring as an unseen creator, however in fact, this solely has the counter-effect of drawing consideration to him because the present’s artistic drive (pay no consideration to the person backstage). Throughout certainly one of these post-episode addresses, he discusses his vainness and the way the years because the present first aired have worn on him. He now not needs to be entrance and heart anymore. It’s a touching little bit of humility that I may say extra about if I wasn’t so certain he’d detest anybody getting sentimental on his behalf. As a substitute, all I’ll say is that as good, hilarious, and surreal as Exodus is, I hope it’s not von Trier’s curtain name.

Associated Subjects: lars von trier, Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant (TIFF)

Anna Swanson is a Senior Contributor who hails from Toronto. She will be able to normally be discovered on the nearest rep screening of a Brian De Palma movie.