Manderlay

In the second instalment of a planned American trilogy, based on motifs of the United States as a land of unlimited opportunity, Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier brings the character of Grace to the screen once again. She was also the heroine of his last picture Dogville, though Nicole Kidman is here replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard (known from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village). At the beginning of the thirties, Grace and her father move from Colorado to Alabama, to an old plantation named Manderlay where they are confronted with the appalling cruelty and injustice of slavery. Unable to idly stand by, Grace decides to do something. But with what result? The social order, maintained for decades, falls apart but does it serve to teach slaves democracy? (source: Catalogue 40th Karlovy Vary IFF)