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Following on from Dogville, the second part of von Trier's 'U, S and A' trilogy, Manderlay, sees the director stirring up more highly sensitive areas of American history - race and slavery, liberalism and well-intentioned but naïve nation-building.
The film takes place immediately after Grace and her father leave Dogville. They set off to Alabama, where Grace intercedes when a black man is about to receive a whipping from his white master. Even though it is 70 years since slavery was abolished, the black workers at the cotton plantation 'Manderlay' are still slaves. Grace - still naive, but more persistent in her idealism than Kidman in Dogville, decides to liberate them and raise them as democratic citizens - whether they want to or not.
As in Dogville, Von Trier usings a number of effective Brechtian distancing techniques. The film is again divided into chapters with explanatory titles and acted out on a stage with chalked lines. A narrator, played by John Hurt, introduces the tale with ironic, fairy-tale language. Overall, Manderlay is a darkly comic parable that delights in muddying the waters.

 

Catharina M. Patjas on 9th June 2006
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