

Dancer in the Dark
In a world of shadows, she found the light of life.
Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her young son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life becomes increasingly difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.
TMDB
7.8/10
2,094 votes
IMDb
Not rated yet
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- Status
- Released
- Budget
- $12.5M
- Box office
- $40.1M
- Language
- English
- factory worker
- individual
- immigrant
- blindness and impaired vision
- dancing
- eye operation
- small town
- naivety
- hereditary disease
- robbery
- court
- musical
Top billed cast















Behind the camera
Director
Writers
Music
Produced in
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden
Where to watch
All optionsAvailability for India. Provided by JustWatch through the TMDB API.
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Videos
Release dates
United StatesUS
- PremiereNew York Film Festival22 Sept 2000
- PremiereLos Angeles, California26 Sept 2000
- TheatricalR6 Oct 2000
- PhysicalRDVD20 Mar 2001
United KingdomGB
- PremiereEdinburgh International Film Festival13 Aug 2000
- Theatrical1515 Sept 2000
- PhysicalCurzon 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray Release9 Jun 2025
United Arab EmiratesAE
- PhysicalDVD Premiere6 Apr 2020
AustraliaAU
- TheatricalMA 15+28 Dec 2000
- Physical28 May 2001
CanadaCA
- Theatrical14A6 Oct 2000
ArgentinaAR
- Premiere17 Feb 2001
- Theatrical8 Mar 2001
AustriaAT
- Theatrical26 Oct 2000
BelgiumBE
- Theatrical11 Oct 2000
BrazilBR
- PremiereRio de Janeiro International Film Festival12 Oct 2000
- Theatrical1220 Oct 2000
CzechiaCZ
- PremiereKarlovy Vary International Film Festival10 Jul 2000
- Theatrical12+9 Nov 2000
- Theatrical24 Nov 2022
DenmarkDK
- Theatrical151 Sept 2000
EgyptEG
- PremiereEuropean Film Festival15 Sept 2004
Frequently asked questions
Dancer in the Dark was released on 1 September 2000.
Audience reviews
3- F10/10
FrontrunnerParis
12/31/2020
Dazzling Björk in this indictment against the death sentence, in tight close-ups. This film is a UFO, musical without being.
- B6/10
badelf
10/31/2025
I have tremendous respect for Lars von Trier's work, and I deeply admire his courage in attempting to fuse drama with musical theater. "Dancer in the Dark" is nothing if not audacious. Unfortunately, ambition alone doesn't make a successful film, and this one fails both as a drama and as a musical. As drama, the film stumbles on two fundamental levels. First, the handheld, shaky camera movement is completely unnec…
- C7/10
CinemaSerf
12/4/2025
You get a clue as to the slightly surreal nature of the drama right from a start that sees Björk and Catherine Deneuve doing their own amateur dramatics rehearsals of “The Sound of Music”! It turns out that the former, “Selma”, is a Czech immigrant to the USA who is suffering from a progressive blindness that she has passed on to her young son. She knows that he still has time to have corrective surgery, but she has …
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