The Kingdom is a gargantuan hospital in downtown Copenhagen, the sort of institution you only visit if you work there or if you have to. There is a forlorn Christmas tree in the lobby, a one-legged goblin in the lift and a pigeon trapped in the revolving doors. The building (all 16 storeys of it) is a temple to modernity and showcases the best of 21st-century medical science. But it is built on a swamp, the site of the old bleaching pools and the ghost of the dead appear to outnumber the living. The pigeon, on balance, is one of the luckier inmates. It at least has a slender chance of escape.
“I can see that most of you have been here before,” quips Dr Pontopidan (Lars Mikkelsen) at the lectern – and although he’s addressing the guests at the establishment’s annual Pain Congress he may also be nodding to the audience at this year’s Venice film festival. That’s because Lars von Trier’s five-part miniseries The Kingdom Exodus marks the director’s belated return to the scene of his classic 90s TV drama, a hospital saga which folded the soap opera in with the horror story to devilish good effect. If the old black magic isn’t as potent this time around, The Kingdom: Exodus contains enough wildness and weirdness to satisfy the fanbase. Watching it is a little like the inpatient experience itself: acres of dead time, sudden dumps of head-spinning information, plus a constant, gnawing sense of dread.
