Films involving General Conditions

General: Minor Films no photo.

Title	Kingdom, The (1994) (TV Mini-series)
Alternative/Original Title
Disability	General Down's Syndrome
Country	Denmark Sweden
Length	266
Genre	Drama
Rating	2
Director	Lars Von Trier
Cast	Ernst Hugo Jarogard Soren Pilmark Kirsten Rolffes
Notes	The Kingdom is a large Copenhagen hospital. A Swedish neurosurgeon with a bad reputation to escape professional problems back home. And finds there that his own incompetence and bizarre behaviour are not unique. There is a long list of characters in this long drama, some of them very peculiar (comparisons have been made with David Lynch's Twin Peaks). The various strands of the film often aren't resolved or connected partly because more episodes are planned. But I didn't even get to the fourth and last of the present series. Regretfully what might have been an interesting satire becomes turgid, boring and frustrating. The documentary effect of transferring film to video and back to film makes this drama even more inaccessible (others report that Von Trier used a hand-held camera). At intervals a young man and woman who work in the kitchen and have Down's Syndrome give a commentary on what has been happening. It is also suggested they are the only ones who understand what is going on. Van Trier interviewed in The Guardian by Simon Hattenstone refers to Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Steiner schools, "Steiner set up a school for people with Down's Syndrome. He said they were angels, not in the sense they were very good, but in the sense they were sent from God because they were a different breed. I always thought that was a beautiful idea, and that is how they are used in The Kingdom and The Idiots." This is patronising twaddle from Steiner furthered by Van Trier.

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