Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish director known for ultra-violent films like Drive, Bronson and The Neon Demon, has recounted the 2023 heart operation that saved his life — and that he credits with reigniting the creativity behind his new science-fiction horror film, Her Private Hell. The film reaches cinemas on September 25, and Refn says it would never have been made without the surgery — not so much on health grounds, but because before it he had lost the passion for making movies. "When you're young, your creative flame is bright red," he told the Guardian. "But my own flame had vanished, like tears in the rain. I had fallen into a form of abyss. I was 50 years old and had no idea what to do with my remaining years." ## Dying in Italy, Saved by a Motorbike-riding Surgeon The story begins in summer 2023, when Refn was working on a Prada campaign in Italy. Feeling increasingly tired and pale — his daughter noticed — he put it down to overwork. Only after returning to Copenhagen did a doctor discover that a valve in his heart was broken and filling his lungs with blood. "I was essentially dying," Refn said. Doctors told him to return in two weeks for open-heart surgery and offered a choice of replacement valve: metal or pig. He was told to write a will and says he made peace with his wife. The lowest point came when he met a man fresh from similar surgery: "He looked like he'd been in a boxing match with Mike Tyson." The turning point arrived just before the operation, with a phone call from his surgeon. "He was the Tom Cruise of surgeons," Refn said. "He rode a motorbike, he had rings, he was very sexy. All the nurses said, 'Oh my God, you're getting him. You're so lucky!'" That surgeon could fix him in a way no other doctor in Copenhagen could — through telescopic surgery, avoiding the need to open his ribcage. Refn believes it was divine intervention. "I think God was trying to tell me something. He's saying, 'You're not ready to go yet, kid. But you're going to go through a challenging process to reignite whatever that is inside of you.'" ## From Hospital Bed to Neon-lit Tokyo The recovery took three months, with Refn describing incredible physical pain and feeling like an infant learning to do things for the first time. He requested that his own operation be filmed — footage he now shows to journalists — after the surgical team initially refused. Her Private Hell is the product of that rebirth: a camp dream-collage of sci-fi, horror, spoof and revenge set in neon-lit Tokyo. Sophie Thatcher stars as Elle, an actor hoping to rebuild her relationship with her film mogul father by making her own Barberella-style sci-fi film, with viewers never quite sure whether they are watching the plot, the fictional movie, or a fever dream. Charles Melton plays Private K, an American GI in postwar Japan searching for a daughter taken by the Leatherman, a mythical figure who rips open girls' chests with diamond-studded gloved hands. Refn calls the film's protective-father theme "dadsploitation" — a form of fetish that appeals to men, allowing extreme biblical violence in defence of innocence. "All I know is that all humans want a hero," he said. ## The Enemy of the Algorithm Refn positions the film against the modern streaming economy. "Her Private Hell is a movie that AI could never do. It's the enemy of the algorithm. Because it's not one movie, it's five movies in one," he said. "Most entertainment today is like this," he added, holding a white napkin to his face. "A white sheet with codes on it. You don't even need to pay attention, you can do a lot of other things at the same time. I don't think that's particularly healthy for the mind or the soul." Reviews for the film have been wildly mixed, with some critics finding hypnotic depth and others tedium — a split Refn claims to welcome. "If we all agree on it in this room, it's as if we don't like it. But if one likes it and one doesn't and we end up arguing about it, that's passion," he said. Now 51, Refn says he is content: "Every day I thank God for killing me and bringing me back. Because why make me go through all this if I don't have a purpose? Now I have a mission." If he gets another 25 years, he will spend them making art. "There is no afterlife. I can say that. I didn't see the light. So whatever time you have left, live it now, man." Whatever the film's critical fate, the interview closes a loop that began with a Prada campaign and a broken valve: the director who once styled himself a Sex Pistol of cinema, fighting for teenagers against the system, has recast his enemy list for the 2020s — social media, AI, tech overlords — while keeping the fairy-tale ambitions intact. The operation footage on his phone, like the film it inspired, sits exactly where Refn likes his work: at the line between horror and rebirth.