Breaking the Waves ending explained

What happens

Bess dies after a brutal attack, and the church refuses her a burial. Jan, now able to walk, steals her body and buries it at sea. Bells then ring in the sky above the rig, as if her faith had been answered.

The last image

Great bells ring in the sky above the oil rig, an impossible sound that seems to answer Bess.

Two readings

1 · A true miracleGod answers Bess, and her self-destroying faith was real goodness all along.

2 · The film's wishThe bells are von Trier's own longing for a miracle, not something that happens in the story.

What it says

The bells turn the story from realism into fable, and ask whether Bess's sacrifice was holiness or a failure of those around her. The elders deny her a burial, but the film honors her anyway, without irony.