Breaking the Waves is a 1996 film directed by
Lars von Trier and starring
Emily Watson. Set in the
Scottish Highlands in the early 1970s, it is about an unusual young woman, Bess McNeill, and of the love she has for Jan, her husband, who asks her to have sex with other men when he becomes immobilized from a
work accident. The film is an international co-production led by Lars von Trier's Danish company
Zentropa. It is the first film in Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy which also includes
The Idiots (1998) and
Dancer in the Dark (2000).