Golden Heart trilogy

It consists of Breaking the Waves (1996), a melodrama about sex and religion; The Idiots (1998), a Dogme 95 film dealing with moral conventions; and Dancer in the Dark (2000), a musical starring the Icelandic singer Björk.

It follows Bess McNeill, a young woman with a history of mental illness, who belongs to a tight-knit Calvinist community and marries a non-religious and foreign oil-rig worker.

The residents engage in what they call "spassing", which is to pretend to have mental disabilities in order to attack the bourgeoisie and reach a state of innocence.

[3] Kim Skotte wrote in Filmmagasinet Ekko [da] that the act of naming them the "Golden Heart trilogy" was a greater provocation than any of the content in the films.

[4] Breaking the Waves won the Grand Prix in Cannes, was a breakout role for Watson who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and was described in Slate in 2009 as "perhaps von Trier's most widely acclaimed film".