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Released
1996 · FILM

Breaking the Waves

A devout Scottish wife must confront her guilt and faith when her newly‑paralyzed husband implores her to find sexual solace with another man, risking love, loyalty, and the strict moral code of their village.

“Love is a mighty power.”

Directed by
Lars Von Trier, Morten Arnfred
Written by
Lars Von Trier, Peter Asmussen
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
159 min
Language
DA
Drama

Synopsis

In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman becomes paralyzed following an accident. His wife, who had prayed for his return, feels guilty, especially when he encourages her to have sex with someone else.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 175+ credited

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Anders RefnShot by Robby MullerDesigned by Karl JuliussonSound by Kristian Eidnes AndersenCostumes by Manon RasmussenStunts by Terry Forrestal

Box Office

1996 · Box office

✅ Made its money back — grossed 3.1× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$23.0M

Budget$7.5M
Worldwide gross$23.0M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $3.8M — 17% of worldwide · International: $19.2M (83%)

Also known as

  • Le onde del destinoit

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