Europa trilogy

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The Europa trilogy is a film trilogy written and directed by Lars von Trier and comprising of his first three feature films, The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1988) and Europa (Zentropa, 1991).

The films are not a narrative trilogy but rather are linked by common themes and stylistic explorations. The overarching subject of the trilogy may be taken to be the social crisis of postwar Europe. Each of the three films follow a character whose idealistic actions ultimately perpetuate the very problem they seek to solve. Von Trier's later USA - Land of Opportunities trilogy also deals both with apparent social collapse and with the ill-effects of the interventions of idealistic individuals.

The Trilogy also experiments with film noir conventions and explores hypnosis and the relationship between reality and unreality.