Manderlay

In Manderlay, Alabama, in 1933, an isolated community live as though slavery had not ended in the U.S. 70 years previously. White masters dispose of the lives of their black laborers in the same way as centuries before. When Grace and her father, a powerful gangster, are passing by the gates of a large property, they come upon a woman calling for help. She beseeches them to help stop Timothy, a slave, from being whipped. Shocked at the situation, Grace complies, with the assistance of her father?s strongmen. Manderlay is controlled with a rod of iron by Mam, the old woman who owns the estate. On her death bed she asks Grace to burn the book containing the so-called "Law of Mam", a record of all of the authoritarian norms that determine life in the community. Grace refuses. With the death of the old matriarch, the girl takes over, extinguishes slavery, and establishes a new social organization.

At first, all are part of a joint effort on the plantation. Natural disasters and new conflicts, however, hold the new model in check. Manderlay is the second part of a trilogy on the U.S. begun with the film Dogville.

Born in Copenhagen in 1956. He started in feature films direction with The Element of Crime (1984, 9th Mostra). Von Trier continued his career with Epidemic (1987) and Europa (1991), winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival. In 1994, he made the television mini-series The Kingdom (18th Mostra), and, in 1996, he directed Breaking the Waves, which also won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Von Trier created, in partnership with Thomas Vinterberg, the Dogma 95 Movement and, in 1998, premiered The Idiots (22nd Mostra), a centerpiece of Danish cinema. He also directed Dancer in the Dark (2000, 24th Mostra), winner of the Golden Palm at Cannes, Dogville (2003, 27th Mostra), Manderlay (2005, 29th Mostra), Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011), the two parts of Nymphomaniac (2013, 38th Mostra), and The House That Jack Built (2018, 41st Mostra).

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA