Nicolas Winding Refn says emergency heart surgery in 2023 saved his life and revived his desire to make films. After discovering that a damaged valve was filling his lungs with blood, the director underwent telescopic surgery, an experience he interprets as a rebirth that directly inspired his new sci-fi horror film, Her Private Hell.

Refn had been suffering exhaustion and had lost confidence in his creative purpose before the operation. He endured severe pain and took three months to recover, while the film draws on his fears about fatherhood, protection and mortality; it follows an actor and her film-maker father, alongside a parallel story about a soldier searching for his daughter in postwar Japan. The film, starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton, has divided critics and is due in cinemas on 25 September.