Danish director Lars von Trier has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the age of 66, according to The Copenhagen Post.
“Lars is in a good mood, he is treating the symptoms of the disease in order to complete the Kingdom project. Due to illness, Lars will take part in a limited number of interviews prior to the project's premiere scheduled for this year," says a statement released by Zentropa, the production company that produces von Trier's films.
The premiere of the final season of the series "Kingdom" is scheduled for August 31, it will take place as part of the Venice Film Festival. The first season of "Kingdom" was released in 1994, the second – in 1997. According to the creators, the third season will be the last.
Von Trier has repeatedly found himself at the center of scandals related both to his personal statements in public and because of explicit scenes in his films.
In 2018, Von Trier returned to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in seven years, presenting The House That Jack Built, a film about an American serial killer. Organizers declared the director persona non grata in 2011 after he joked that he sympathized with Hitler.
During the screening in Cannes, at least a hundred people left the premiere of the film.
“I have never seen anything like it at film festivals. More than a hundred people left the hall during the screening of "The House That Jack Built" by Lars von Trier, in which there are scenes of women and children being tortured by a serial killer. “This is disgusting,” said one woman on her way out,” said Ramin Setoudeh, New York bureau chief for Variety.
Von Trier is known for such films as Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, Idiots, Antichrist, Melancholia and Nymphomaniac.
