Europa (known as Zentropa in North America) is a 1991 experimental psychological drama period film[8][9] directed and co-written by Lars von Trier.

An international co-production between Denmark and five other European countries, this is von Trier's third theatrical feature film, and the third and final installment in his Europa trilogy, following The Element of Crime (1984) and Epidemic (1987).

[10] The film features an international ensemble cast, including Germans Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier, expatriate American Eddie Constantine, and Swedes Max von Sydow and Ernst-Hugo Järegård.

A young American of German descent, Leopold Kessler, comes to Germany and gets a job as a train conductor for the railway company Zentropa with his uncle.

With the help of false testimony from a Jewish American, who claims he was the lifesaver, Max Hartmann receives a clean bill of health and is rehabilitated, but he later commits suicide out of shame.

Kessler, driven to despair, pulls the emergency brake to prevent the train from leaving Germany, and reluctantly decides to detonate the explosives after all.

Europa employs an experimental style of cinema, combining largely black and white visuals with occasional intrusions of colour (which later inspired Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust film Schindler's List), having actors interact with rear-projected footage, and layering different images over one another to surreal effect.

Morando Morandini writes: "More than the characters, what counts is the technical-formalistic apparatus: color contrasted with black and white, superimpositions, distorting lenses, dynamic camera, expressionistic-style set designs.

[13] The Lexicon of International Film gave a positive review: "A straightforwardly told mixture of thriller and melodrama, which is based on the classic role models of the genres, but goes beyond the given limits due to its unusual visual creative will.