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Learning Difficulties (Mental Retardation): Major Films  
TitleIdiots, The (1998)
Alternative/Original Title1. Idioterne 2. Dogma 95 - Idioterne
DisabilityLearning Difficulty
CountryDenmark
Length112
GenreAgit-prop ?
Rating2
DirectorLars von Trier
CastBodil Jorgensen Jens Albinus Anne Louise Hassing Troels Lyby Nikolaj Lie Kaas
NotesThis film defeats categorisation because it's about faking learning difficulties. In the suburbs of Copenhagen a group of ordinary people decide to be people with learning difficulties. They do this in reaction to the ills (here insert your own bete-noire) of society. By acting in this way they upset people, create anarchy and ridicule everything they don't like. You're left to make up your mind how justified these people are. Or if this is a sort of agit-prop which will make people reflect on the society they live in. Or are they just copping out? Copenhagen, like Amsterdam, is quite different from other towns in their respective countries. Liberties are allowed there which don't exist elsewhere. I lived in a commune in Copenhagen where art students had been given the right to use an old office block awaiting demolition as studios. Occasionally police would knock on your front door early in the morning and ask if you slept there. You, in your pyjamas or nightdress or usually less, answered "No". And the police went away.

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