MUMBAI: Lars von Trier’s hard-core director's cut for his erotic epic Nymphomaniac won't be going to Cannes but will instead premiere at the Berlinale in February. The 64th Berlin International Film Festival will present the world premiere of Volume I of the long uncut version of Nymphomaniac, out of competition.

Alongside starring actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, numerous other international stars are part of the Nymphomaniac ensemble: Stellan Skarsg?rd, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and many others. British actress Stcy Martin celebrates her big screen debut with Nymphomaniac.

"Berlinale audiences will be the first to see the long uncut version of Nymphomaniac Volume I. Lars von Trier, a guest of the Berlinale for the first time in 1984, returns to the festival with this film. The aesthetic he has created in Nymphomaniac is impressive and radical," said Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick in a release.

Nymphomaniac is the wild and poetic story of one woman's journey from birth to age 50, as told by the main character, self-diagnosed nymphomaniac Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg). One cold winter evening, the old and charming bachelor Seligman (Stellan Skarsg?rd) finds Joe beaten up in an alley. He takes her to his flat, where he tends to her wounds while asking about her life. He listens intently as Joe tells the lush, branched-out and multifaceted story of her life, in eight chapters.

Von Trier, 57, won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2000 for the death-row melodrama Dancer in the Dark starring Bjork and Catherine Deneuve and picked up its Jury Grand Prize for Breaking the Waves in 1996. The shorter version approved by Lars von Trier will open worldwide in cinemas starting 25 December, 2013.

The Berlinale will open on 6 February with an all-star romp by US director Wes Anderson at the Grand Budapest Hotel and wrap up on 16 February.