Dancer in the Dark is a
musical by
Lars von Trier, starring
Björk as Selma, a Czech
immigrant in the
USA. Selma is a
single mother living with her son Gene in a
trailer in someone's back yard.
She works every waking hour to make money, so she can afford an eye operation for Gene, saving him from going blind due to the hereditary eye-disease he has from her. Selma herself is almost blind but tries to hide it, and she hasn't told her son about his disease so he won't worry about it.
The only recreation she allows herself is playing Maria in "The Sound of Music" being rehearsed at the local theatre, though she has some trouble due to her failing sight. She loves musicals, and often daydream at work, hearing songs and melodies in the rhytmic noises made by the machines.
Things get bad when a desperate neighbour, the policeman Bill (David Morse), steals her money and claims they are his own. Then things go from bad to worse.
A thoroughly gripping and plausible movie about how life's not fair to some people. I cried through the last third of the film, and could barely walk out of the cinema afterwards.
I highly recommend it. =)