The Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, best known for films such as the Pusher trilogy and Drive, has emotionally spoken about his near-death experience and heart surgery three years ago.

The director, whose first film in 10 years, Her Private Hell, premiered on Monday evening, told gathered journalists that he had “died for 25 minutes” in 2023.

His “leaking heart” was “discovered by accident”, Refn continued. “My lungs were filling up with blood. Suddenly, I was told that I would probably not live, but if I did they didn’t know what would happen. So, two weeks later I was operated on.”

He added, tongue-in-cheek: “Thank God the surgeon was Tom Cruise and he could fix me with his hands, and then he brought me back to life with electricity.”

Through tears, Refn explained that the experience had changed his approach to his career and personal life.

“Before I died,” he said, “I had come to the end of my career because I didn’t have anything left in me. So, there was nothing for me to do.

“I realised before I died that I’d been given a gift, I could start over again. Like how many people get a second chance? And I got a second chance from God. And I could use that for good,” he concluded.

His words echo those given in an interview with Screen International on Sunday, when he told Wendy Mitchell, “I was dead for half an hour, and I was brought back to life with electricity, like Frankenstein,” he reveals. “I suddenly realised I could start over again. I had this desire to go back and make movies again like I’ve never made movies before.”

Refn’s 2011 film, Drive, was a major hit on the Croisette in 2013; he returned to the festival in 2013 with Only God Forgives and 2016 with The Neon Demon.

Her Private Hell is a horror-thriller about a tortured film star, played by Sophie Thatcher, whose best friend marries her father. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure played by Charles Melton and known as Leather Man seeks to avenge the kidnapping of his daughter.

Tuesday also saw the first screening of another film by a director who has come back to Cannes after battling considerable health challenges. The dark drama Minotaur is the first film in almost 10 years from the Russian director Andreï Zvyagintsev, who was hospitalised for 11 months with Covid in 2021.