Breaking the Waves (Dalgaları Aşmak)

Breaking the Waves is a 1996 romantic drama directed by Lars von Trier, who co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Asmussen. An international co-production led by Denmark, Sweden, and France, it was von Trier's first feature made under his own company, Zentropa, and was filmed in English.

Set in the early 1970s within a strict religious community in the Scottish Highlands, the film follows the innocent and devout Bess McNeill, whose faith, love, and capacity for sacrifice are tested after her husband Jan, an oil rig worker, is left paralysed by an accident. Emily Watson's leading performance, her first to earn an Academy Award nomination, received unanimous critical praise. The film opens von Trier's Golden Heart trilogy, is strongly influenced by the Dogme 95 aesthetic he had just helped found, and won the Grand Prix at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Jean-Marc Barr and Udo Kier also appear in the cast.