Levring released the film "The King is Alive" in 2000. "The Guardian" describes the film as following, "bus passengers stranded in the Namibian desert, who decide to stage their own private performance of "King Lear" to pass the time until help arrives." The passengers are stranded in an abandoned mining town in the middle of the Sahara. The film utilized "Lear" as a foil for European society reaching a terminal crisis. The words of "Lear" are used to further show the disintegration of the group into chaos under the pressure of their stranding. While one of the members is sent on a five-day journey to get help, the social relationships that Levring explores among those that stay behind include gender, marital, and the racial elements of the relationship between the passengers and the bus driver. The film was named an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival upon its premiere.