Kirsten Dunst has said that Lars von Trier's on-screen treatment of women is akin to poetry. The actress, who is starring in the filmmaker's next project Melancholia, revealed that working with the controversial Dane has provided her with a "continuing challenge".

"What is different is that Lars instructs without [rehearsal] and it gives real things life," The Playlist quotes her as saying. "This is a continuing challenge for myself and with the material. [There's] poetry in the way he tortures women." Discussing the premise for Melancholia, von Trier said: “It’s a story about two sisters and a planet. Kirsten is getting married, but only for a short while, of course.”

The title Melancholia is thought to refer to a giant planet that hovers close to Earth and causes the end of the world. Alexander Skarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Gainsbourg co-star in the drama. Von Trier's last movie Antichrist caused a stir for showing Gainsbourg's character 'She' inflict graphic self-torture on herself.