Lars von Trier: Danish star director suffers from Parkinson's disease

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Lars von Trier 2018 on his return to Cannes: In 2011 he was banned from the film festival because he had described himself as a Nazi

Photo: JEAN-PAUL PELISSIER / REUTERS

Danish director Lars von Trier has Parkinson's disease.

This was reported by the Danish broadcaster DR, citing Zentropa, the Danish filmmaker's production company.

As a result, the director ("Idiots", "Antichrist", "Melancholia") is in a good mood despite the diagnosis.

He is being treated for the symptoms but can continue working on the long-awaited third season of the horror series Ghosts as planned.

The sequel to the series about a bewitched hospital, with which von Trier wrote TV history in the 1990s, is entitled »Ghosts: Exodus« and is scheduled to be broadcast in Denmark by the end of the year.

However, he will only give limited interviews until the premiere later this year.

Von Trier, controversial for his provocative films and sometimes extreme depictions of violence, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark, starring Icelandic musician Björk.

His international breakthrough came in 1996 with the award-winning drama »Breaking the Waves«.

The slowly progressing Parkinson's disease causes cells in the brain that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine to die.

This hinders the control of body movements and causes, among other things, the typical tremors of those affected.

sak/dpa/AFP