# "Riget II" (1997) (mini)

### reviewed by
Richard Scheib

    THE KINGDOM II (Riget II)

Denmark. 1997. Directors - Morton Arnfred & Lars von Trier, Teleplay - von Trier, Tumas Gislason & Niels Vorsel, Photography - Erik Kress, Music - Joachim Holbeck, Special Effects - Lars Holding Andersen & Arnette Rolfshoj, Makeup Effects - Kim & Lis Olsson, Production Design - Jette Lehmann & Mans Cmr. Lindholm. Production Company - DH TV/Danish Broadcasting Corporation/Zentropa Entertainment. Ernst Hugo Jaregard (Dr Stig Helmer), Holger Juul Hansen (Dr Einar Moesgaard), Kirsten Rolffes (Sigrid Drusse), Soren Pilmark (Kroshoj), Peter Mygind (Mogge Moesgaard), Birgitte Raaberg (Judith), Ghita Norby (Rigmor), Udo Kier (Little Brother/Dr Aage Krueger), Jens Okking (Bulder Drusse), Erik Wedersoe (Ole), Ole Boisen (Christian), Louise Fribo (Sanne), Baard Owe (Professor Bondo), Vita Jensen & Morten Rotne-Leffers (Dishwashers), Henning Jensen (Bob), Birthe Neumann (Mrs Svendsen)

Plot: At The Kingdom hospital in Copenhagen, Stig Helmer returns from Haiti with a potion with which he intends to turn his rival Kroshoj into a zombie but this goes astray and Stig must find and revive Kroshoj's corpse before he is arrested for murder. Meanwhile Judith, having been impregnated by the ghost of Dr Aage Krueger, has given birth to a freak baby which has an adult's head, a giant elongated body and a soul that is half-human, half-Devil, and is now wanted by Aage Krueger who is in reality Satan.

The 1994 Danish four-part tv mini-series `The Kingdom' was given a cinematic release in arthouse theatres in English-speaking countries where it was split into two two and-a-half hour parts. There the name of co-director Lars von Trier, then riding high on the success of 1991's Cannes hit `Zentropa' aka `Europa', was sufficient to carry it to audiences. The result was a delightfully eccentric piece of black comedy that suggested a head-on collision between `Twin Peaks' and `ER'. The series however was left unfinished, ending on the cliffhanger of the birth of the ghost-impregnated baby and a `to be continued' credit. But true to their word von Trier, co-director Morton Arnfred and the entire cast return here three years later to continue the saga, which once again aired as a four-part mini-series in Denmark and has elsewhere been released as a theatrical two-parter.

However `The Kingdom II', although not unenjoyable, is a relative disappointment over its predecessor. There is a certain ricketiness to the story. It comes with the distinct sense that von Trier and Arnfred are not so much continuing a story that is waiting to be completed than they are fairly much making the saga up as they go along. Many aspects of the original have undergone noticeable changes. The character of Dr Aage Krueger (played by Udo Kier) goes from the shadowy figure of a doctor who killed a young girl in the first mini-series to now become The Devil himself; the ghost ambulance from the first mini-series is now unconvincingly passed off as being a group of med students conducting daredevil bets. And the pivotal character of Mary, the ghost of the little girl that haunted the hospital in the first mini-series, is almost entirely dropped from the sequel bar a token dream appearance. Further the tone of the second series seems to have changed somewhat - with the sidelining of the character of Mary and the sequel's principal concentration on the more mundane fates of the various lead characters, the series loses much of the eerie sense of otherworldliness that hovered over the first series. Although there is some substitute in the bizarre scenes with Udo Kier playing a baby that has an adult head and a twelve-foot tall elongated body, wailing to his mother and cooingly dreaming of the future they might lead together.

This series at times feels overly long but it is largely carried by its sense of black comedy. Chief among which is Ernst Hugo Jaregard's hilarious performance once again as the conniving, disgruntled Swedish surgeon. There are some highly amusing scenes in his ongoing battles to avoid bailiffs or in mixing up which coffee cup he has placed a voodoo potion in during a staff conference or his plans to zombify his rival which keep going wrong. Birthe Neumann has an extremely funny part as an overly efficient secretary, who, after the decision that costs must be kept down by buying low denomination stamps, pops up to ask whereabouts on a letter entirely covered by stamps she is meant to place the address. Although the most hysterical sequence in the entire film is the character of a Jamaican faith healer who wanders in to heal a concussed Kirsten Rolffes and removes a large clump of bloody tissue from the back of her head and eats it, noting "It's the next best substitute since they took the Vitamin C out of Danish beer."

The biggest downside to the sequel is the end credit `to be continued' and the realization that one has sat through another five hours with no end in sight and that this means another three years and another five hours to wait for the saga to be wrapped up, if that.

Reviewed at the 1998 Wellington International Film Festival Copyright Richard Scheib 1998

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