Surveying The Kingdom

Abstract

First broadcast on Danish television in 1994, The Kingdom has received little critical attention. This is surprising when one compares the notoriety that more recent von Trier films such as The Idiots (1999) and Dancer in the Dark (2000) have generated - their controversial themes and unsettling techniques rapidly turning this Danish director into a contemporary media icon and international auteur. However, this four-part television serial is as rich and sophisticated a piece of work as any of von Trier's single films, confronting a varied array of themes and concerns that both exploit and reflect the particular dynamics of Danish national culture, mythology and history. In particular, the serial explores the complex and difficult debates surrounding issues of power, discourse, national identity, and scientific and historical progress within a dense and original structure that is self-consciously and inherently televisual. This article argues that the serial's complex and frequently ambiguous portrayal of the body, nation and the self combines to produce a striking and frequently original conception of nationhood and nationalism in Europe at the end of the 20th century.