Plot
The film opens with Detective Fisher, a European expatriate in Cairo, undergoing hypnosis to process his most recent case, with the remainder of the film narrated by him in a dreamlike state. Expressionistic and surreal, the Europe of Fisher's hypnotized recollection is a psychosocial dystopia, dark, decaying, desolate, and rain drenched.
Chief Inspector Kramer has asked Fisher to return to Europe to investigate a serial killer who has been strangling and mutilating young girls. Osborne, Fisher's former but now disgraced mentor, had closed the case three years before, after the suspect, Harry Grey, supposedly died in a car crash with Osborne in pursuit. But now, there has been a new murder with the same MO.
Visiting Osborne, Fisher is bothered to learn that Osborne now disowns the set of crime-solving techniques he invented, controversial in the department, but which Fisher considers genius. Fisher intends to vindicate Osborne's techniques by solving the murders.
Osborne's techniques involve simulating the life of the criminal as closely as possible, in order to understand the inner workings of his mind. Retrieving an old tailing report describing Grey's journey between several cities, which Osborne had ordered burned, Fisher sets off to repeat Grey's journey.
In the first city, Fisher meets a prostitute, Kim, who he asks to simulate Grey's fiancé, who accompanied him on the trip according to the tailing report. Throughout the journey, Fisher keeps the same hotel rooms as Grey, wears Grey's clothing, and attempts to simulate his personality. He even has Kim painfully wrap strings around his head, to simulate Grey's frequent headaches.
By thinking like Grey, Fisher is able to discover a new body, and to predict the time and place of the next murder. He also learns that Kim had a child with Grey, whom Fisher had seen earlier at Osborne's home.
Fisher's prediction of the time and place of the next murder turns out to be accurate, as a young girl is soon contacted by a man claiming to be Harry Grey. Kramer's police force sets up a sting operation to capture Grey using the girl as bait. But instead of protecting the girl, Fisher separates her from Kramer, and strangles her himself. The true killer is Osborne: Grey really died in the car chase, but having successfully entered Grey's mind across the course of his own investigation, Osborne also acquired his murderous compulsions, and continued Grey's plans. Having replicated Osborne's techniques, the same thing has happened to Fisher.
Osborne hangs himself after writing a confession claiming responsibility for the murders, including the one committed by Fisher. Over Osborne's body, Kim and Fisher exchange knowing glances.
Fisher tells the hypnotist, "You can wake me up now," but hears no response.
Style
The film employs the film noir conventions of monochrome footage, apparently constant night, and the frequent presence of water, such as rain and rivers. The film is shot almost entirely in sodium light, resulting in images reminiscent of sepia tone, though with a more intense yellow. Because sodium lamps produce light in only a few narrow emission peaks, rather than over a wide spectrum, the film has an almost monochrome appearance. The sepia is occasionally contrasted with piercing blues and reds.
The world depicted in the film is semi-derelict. Disordered collections of similar or identical objects are found in many of the scenes, reinforcing the sense of a crumbling society. Examples include white paper, light bulbs, heaps of keys, surgical scissors, glass bottles, rubber stamps, and Coca-Cola cans.
The film's slow pace, dark visuals and occasional surreal imagery give it a dreamlike quality. In addition, much of the dialogue is contradictory. An example is one conversation between Fisher and his mentor's housekeeper:
- Fisher: Is it always as dark as this at this time of the year?
- Housekeeper: There are no seasons anymore. The last three summers haven't been summers. The weather changes all the time. It never alters.
In the opening of the film, a shot of a donkey lying on its back and then slowly struggling to stand may be a homage to a similar shot in Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966). von Trier has stated that he is an admirer of Tarkovsky's work:
I was very inspired by Tarkovsky. I won't make any bones about that. I saw an excerpt from The Mirror (Zerkalo) on Swedish television once, just a travelling shot around that house, and that was one of those 'I'll be damned' experiences.
