Provocateur and master filmmaker Lars von Trier received a severe critical drubbing at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival with the bitter farce The Idiots (1998), about a commune of Danish Gen-Xers who lampoon society by acting mentally challenged. Critics rebelled against the film's strident artlessness (as part of his Dogme 95 movement), its savage take on bourgeois assumptions and its perceived insensitivity toward the disabled. Jesper Jargil captured the making of that controversial movie with this behind the scenes documentary. Jargil captures Von Trier as both a megalomaniac who prods and abuses his actors in order to wring out a true performance and a visionary talent boldly going into uncharted cinematic territory. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.
by Jonathan Crow
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