Manderlay

MANDERLAY. The second instalment in Lars von Triers allegorical USA trilogy employs a similarly stripped down approach to Dogville and shares the earlier films polemic stance, but to leaner and more accessible effect. Manderlays scrutiny of the history of slavery and race relations begins in 1933. Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her father (Willem Dafoe) having fled Dogville, arrive in Alabama at the gate of a troubled plantation where the abolition of slavery 70 years earlier has been ignored. Disregarding her fathers advice, Grace determines to right this injustice, and stays behind to liberate Manderlay. But in Von Triers world the road to hell is paved with naive good intentions, and Graces determination to bring democracy and equality doesnt allow for the free will the former slaves might choose to exercise, nor for her own uncomfortable erotic fantasies...