Breaking the waves

A moving portrayal of Bess, a devout, innocent woman who lives in an isolated Scottish fishing village. The warmth and love she has found in her marriage to oil-rig worker Jan is shattered by an accident that leaves him paralysed from the neck down. When he encourages Bess to have sex with other men, she is propelled into a personal and religious crisis that the claustrophobic and repressive community of the village only makes worse. The visual style of the film evokes a fly-on-the-wall, documentary feel achieved by Muellers hand-held camerawork. Beyond this filming technique, the wide-screen stock was put through a film-video-film transfer process, muting the colour and producing noticeable grain. Emily Watson won Berlin Film Festival and New York Critics Circle Best Actress awards, and was nominated for an oscar for her finely articulated performance of a woman made victim to the desires and dictates of the men around her. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1996. Cast includes Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Adrian Rawlins and Sandra Voe.