Epidemic (1987)

Made on a shoestring budget, semi-documentary and frequently improvised, EPIDEMIC is a strangely compelling experience despite its meandering nature. You get to see Lars working out his ideas about what a director should be like, or at least what Lars should be like as a director.

It's very unlike The Element of Crime, which shows that he wasn't interested in repeating himself - and perhaps that he'd exorcised some of his urge to indulgence in technique. It's is fair to say it is self-indulgent in other ways, though less so than his student film THE ORCHID GARDENER.

Epidemic isn't quite essential viewing, but it provided some of the ideas that went into The Kingdom, which is the project that truly announced the arrival of Lars Von Trier to the world.