Dancer in the Dark

Boldly mixing handheld documentary realism with Hollywood musical fantasy into a powerful drama, the notorious provocateur’s slick throwback to the old-fashioned sense of the cinema – heroines and villains, noble sacrifices and dastardly betrayals – finally won the top prize at Cannes. In his reinvention of romantic fatalism, Björk stars as a Czech immigrant living in 1960s America, where she works hard to rescue her son from congenital blindness, but is doomed to face tragic consequences. Like the martyr heroine in Breaking the Waves, her forgiving view of humanity finds ironic salvation – this time, in the re-imagination of The Sound of Music.

Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or and Best Actress