The Kingdom I (TV Miniseries)

Adapted from a twelve-part television series, Lars von Trier's marathon hospital soap opera-cum-ghost story is set in a labyrinthine Copenhagen medical institution known as "The Kingdom". It earned that name when it was founded before World War I by Denmark's best and brightest, to accommodate patients from all over the Kingdom of Denmark in the most modern and advanced conditions. But the high-science veneer of the institution is beginning to crack. Back in 1919, the infamous Dr. Krüger, one of the hospital's founders, murdered his illegitimate young daughter Mary. Decades later it is only the sick and mentally retarded who hear the dead girl's cries. Enter Madame Drusse, a patient who dabbles in spiritualism. She feigns her way into the neurosurgical ward and, together with a doctor who has also begun to feel Mary's presence, she seeks now to put the little girl's spirit to rest. Meanwhile... the staff of the neurosurgical ward... A stinging blend of satire, horror, and soap romance characterizes "The Kingdom". Riotously entertainting with an unpredictable and nourishing narrative, this marathon of a film attracted crowds of fanatics and followers wherever the series exhibited...