Together with Danish documentary film veteran Jørgen Leth, Lars von Trier enters the world of documentary filmmaking and takes on the task of challenging conventional ways of documentary and film production. In 1967 Jørgen Leth made a 13 min. short film called The Perfect Human, a document on human behaviour. In the year 2000, Trier challenged Leth... More »

Together with Danish documentary film veteran Jørgen Leth, Lars von Trier enters the world of documentary filmmaking and takes on the task of challenging conventional ways of documentary and film production. In 1967 Jørgen Leth made a 13 min. short film called The Perfect Human, a document on human behaviour. In the year 2000, Trier challenged Leth to make five remakes of this film. Trier put forward obstructions, constraining Leth to re-think the story and the characters of the original film. Playing the naive anthropologist, Leth attempts to embrace the cunning challenges set forth by the devious and sneaky Trier and must deal with the limitations, commands and prohibitions. It is a game full of traps and vicious turns. The Five Obstructions is an investigative journey into the phenomenon of filmmaking. Less «