Europa (known as Zentropa in North America) is a 1991 experimental psychological drama anti-war film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier. The film is an international co-production between Denmark and five other European countries, it is von Trier's third theatrical feature film and the final installment in his Europa trilogy following The Element of Crime (1984) and Epidemic (1987). The film features an international ensemble cast, including Germans Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier, expatriate American Eddie Constantine, and Swedes Max von Sydow and Ernst-Hugo Järegård. This was German-born French-American Jean-Marc Barr's first collaboration of a series of films with von Trier. Europa was influenced by Franz Kafka's Amerika, and the title was chosen "as an echo" of that novel. The music, including the main theme, was composed by von Trier's ex-brother-in-law and frequent collaborator Joachim Holbek, who also composed Riget (1991-2022) and Manderlay (2005). Plot Set in 1945 US-occupied Germany after the end of World War II, the entire population is under close surveillance. In this turbulent time, in an atmosphere saturated with fear and violence, the main events of the life of two completely different, but very close people unfold. A narrator announces to the viewer that he will soon be waking up in Europe. The voice counts to ten and proclaims, "when you have counted to ten inwardly, you will be in Europe". A young American with German descent, Leopold Kessler, comes to Germany and gets a job as a train conductor of the railway company Zentropa with his uncle. Leopold only sees Germany from the perspective of moving trains, train stations or dormitories. As he tries unsuccessfully to conform to society's rules, he witnesses the country's inner turmoil and the aftermath of its recent past. Before that, he falls in love with a young German woman, Katharina, the daughter of the Zentropa's founder Max Hartmann, who secretly connected to Werwolf as a superior. She invites him to dinner at her half-bombed family mansion. With the help of a false testimony from a Jewish American, who claims he was the lifesaver, Max Hartmann receives a clean bill of health and is rehabilitated. Hartmann later commits suicide out of shame. Later, Leopold marries Katharina in the cathedral, but shortly thereafter she disappears without a trace. One day, a group of underground Nazi terrorist conspiracy Werwolf, demands Leopold by giving several explosives that he blow up the train. Leopold