Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom Trilogy / Riket

“For Satan’s sake, be prepared to take the good with the evil.”Imprint Television is baptised with fear and its first foreign language addition with Lars von Trier’sThe Kingdom Trilogy, a mind-melting saga from the Danish provocateur set in the neurosurgical ward of an eccentric hospital.The darkly absurdist trilogy marks our first 4K UHD television release, with all three series available in a 7-disc 4K UHD Limited Edition Hardbox with Hardcover Booklet 60-page episode guide (1500 copies only), or a 7-disc Blu-ray Special Edition, housed in a glossy slipcase.TitledRigetin Denmark, viewers were immediately drawn into the show’s surrealist mix of horror and comedy, with von Trier citing David Lynch’sTwin Peaksas a key source of inspiration. Actors Søren Pilmark, Ghita Nørby, Birgitte Raaberg, Peter Mygind, and Udo Kier star in all three series, with an enormous ensemble cast filling the hospital halls, and guest appearances from Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, and Lars von Trier himself.Twisted plotlines intersect across all thirteen episodes, with spirits haunting the medical wards, sexually charged workers who are driven by desire, and neurotic, corrupt doctors who experiment and exploit the black market, all discussed by the Down syndrome dishwashers in the cellar.The Kingdom(1994) andThe Kingdom II(1997) were originally shot on Super 16mm celluloid film and developed using a bleach bypass process, giving the series a unique appearance - grainy and desaturated. The original 16mm negatives were newly scanned in 3K and upscaled to 4K by von Trier’s production company Zentropa, presented here on 4K UHD for the first time worldwide, with authoring and encoding by Fidelity In Motion.Von Trier returned to the world of the Rigshospitalet in 2022 withThe Kingdom: Exodus, premiering at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and concluding the story almost thirty years after it first debuted.Take a visit to the Rigshospitalet, if you dare.