Riget

Apr 19, 2009 | No Comments | @andrewmarcec

Through the beauty of Netflix I was able to watch the original version of what you all know as “Kingdom Hospital”.  Riget (The Kingdom) was a Danish mini-series by Lars Von Trier in 1994.  The four episode mini-series is set in the neurosurgical ward of the hospital, and follows several characters.

It begins with a spiritualist hypochondriac, Sigrid Drusse, being admitted into the hospital…again.  This time she will be admitted to the neurosurgical ward of the hospital, and upon her ride up in the elevator, hears the sound of a child crying.  After a failed seance, a close friend of hers dies, but she stays in between the world of the living, and the light of death to tell Sigrid the child’s name is Mary.  She recruits her son, his friend, and his friend’s trusty dog Bongo to help her investigate every nook and cranny of the hospital.

Stig Helmer is the head neuologist in the hospital from Sweeden.  He was banned from all Sweedesh hospitals after having been found guilty of plagerizing other doctors articles.  He is pompus, arrogant, and trying to cover his tracks after the botched operation that left a little girl a vegetable.

There are several other characters whose stories are told, the doctor who runs a black market on hospital goods out of the hospital’s basement, the medical student who is in love with a much older doctor and is willing to do anything to get her attention, a recently impregnated woman who’s lover has just run off, and two mentally handicapped dishwashers who seem to know all the goings on of the hospital without ever leaving their dish washing station.  There are also ghosts.

I tried watching Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital when it aired in 2004, however the plotline was far too confusing, the character development was slow and droll, and the ghosts were odd…an anteater?  Really?  I was pleasantly suprised by how much I liked Riget.  I actually Netflixed it not knowing it had any relation to Stephen King’s version.

Riget’s humor is dark, yet funny.  Among several darker jokes that you might hear doctors make in a hospital, at the end of each episode Lars Von Trier steps into frame with the scrolling credits and thanks the viewers for watching.

The series is shot in a “shakey cam” style, similar to “The Office”, and the quality looks as if it was a VHS transfer.  That works for it though, the grittiness of the quality along with the always moving camera and the quick editing keeps you interested, even when slow moments (though few and far between) are introduced.

I will go back and give Stephen King’s version one more shot now that I have a better grasp on the story and see which one I think is better.  However, I’m finding that the Swedes and Danish are excellent storytellers…I mean hello Ingmar Bergman.

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