The Five Obstructions

Country: Den
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2003
Rating: PG
Format: (WS)

In 1967, Jørgen Leth composed a crystalline short film, The Perfect Human. Tightly constructed, it is an experiment in objectivity, the body segmented, analysed, abstracted almost to the point of sacrificing all specificity. A gangly figure lights a pipe; a woman brushes her hair. Both man and woman dress. The narrator dissects the elements of each body, observing movement in a boundless room. The Perfect Human is like a nature documentary made by aliens, calculating the exterior form of humanity without understanding the internal motivations. Why does that man dance? What does that woman want? Lars Von Trier, Scandinavian cinema's enfant terrible, idolises Jørgen Leth, and he loves The Perfect Human. Lars Von Trier is wicked man with a sense of humour and his plan is to force Leth to remake The Perfect Human five times, each effort blocked by increasingly diabolical obstructions.