
When we last saw Grace, she was leaving the recently massacred
Dogville with her gangster father; as Manderlay begins, they’ve arrived in the
Deep South. An African-American woman runs up to their car and begs for help;
although her father warns her not to get involved, Grace is convinced that this
is her next stop. Behind a high iron fence stands a classic, pillared mansion;
within that house and on all the land it surveys is a world in which slavery
still exists, 70 years after its abolition. Aided by four gangsters and a lawyer
given to her by her father, Grace tries to end what she sees as a corrupt remnant
of the past—but it soon emerges that both victims and victimizers have
interests in the status quo. The ever-unpredictable Lars von Trier has assembled
an extraordinary cast—Danny Glover, Lauren Bacall, Isaach de Bankolé,
Willem Dafoe—for a controversial, unsettling exploration of race relations.
And in Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Grace, von Trier has discovered a major
new talent. 139 min. Denmark/Sweden/France, 2005 An IFC Films Release
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