Europa (1991) on Netflix
Leopold Kessler, an American of German descent, takes a job on the Zentropa railway, working the sleeping cars. Colonel Harris asks him to watch the trains for Werwolf saboteurs.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.5/1024,899 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Plot summary
In October 1945, Leopold Kessler, an American of German descent, arrives in the zone of Germany held by the U.S. Army. He wants to stay neutral and help a country that is hurting, and his uncle finds him work with the Zentropa railway, serving in the sleeping cars. Traveling, he sees the ruined occupied country and meets Katharina Hartmann, whose father Max founded Zentropa. She shows him bodies hanging in trees beside the track and says they are members of Werwolf, a Nazi guerrilla group that keeps sabotaging the occupiers. Katharina invites Kessler to dinner at the family mansion, which is half in ruins. There he meets her brother Lawrence, her father Max, and Colonel Harris of the U.S. Army, who asks Kessler to watch the trains for signs of Werwolf activity.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Europa (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Europa won three awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival — Best Artistic Contribution, Jury Prize and Technical Grand Prize — but when Lars von Trier realised he had not won the Palme d'Or, he gave the judges the finger and stormed out of the venue.
- Europa's experimental look, largely black-and-white with occasional intrusions of colour, later inspired Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust film Schindler's List.
- Lars von Trier's production company, Zentropa Entertainments, is named after the sinister railway network in the film, which is itself named after the real-life train company Mitropa.
