It centres on a young woman, Justine (Kirsten Dunst) – Von Trier's surrogate – who experiences a debilitating depression just as the literal end of the world is nigh, with a blue planet, the titular Melancholia, looming in the sky and set to hit Earth.
In ‘Melancholia’, von Trier has created a mission statement of a masterpiece, one that reminds us that nihilism itself can serve as a legitimate form of creation, a means as well as The End. It is so powerful because it refuses to do what people in the grip of mental disorder are often pressured to do: make the pain small. 12 years on, it stands as a masterpiece about mental illness.