Controversial Cannes film Antichrist is the closing night special for the 2009 NZ International Film Festival in Wellington.
Festival director Bill Gosden said the movie, featuring graphic genital mutilation, had been controversial at the Cannes Film Festival and would be here.
At Cannes, some who saw the movie recoiled in horror at explicit scenes of violence and jeered and booed. Danish director Lars von Trier's movie will screen at Wellington's Embassy Theatre on Friday, July 31, at 8.30pm and on Sunday, August 2.
The film stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, a couple struggling with grief after losing their only child. Scenes of genital mutilation made it the most-talked-about movie at Cannes this year.
NZ Festival programmer Sandra Reid attended the world premiere in Cannes. "Antichrist is certainly further proof of how Lars von Trier relishes provoking audiences. It is not for the faint of heart."
Von Trier had a shouting match with several reporters at a Cannes press conference and said the film had provided him with therapy after a two-year bout of depression.
Impervious to the criticism, he declared he was the "greatest director in the world".
Jane Campion's Bright Star, also fresh from its Cannes debut, will open the programme in Wellington on Friday, July 17.
The festival is negotiating with Campion to attend opening night and expects to have an answer next week.