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The envelope-pushing mind of director Lars von Trier moves into new territory with this film that’s part reality TV and part cinematic essay. The set-up’s fairly straightforward: Trier challenges his mentor, Jørgen Leth, to remake his 1967 short film "The Perfect Human" five times, each time with a different set of rules. The "obstructions" range from filming in the "most miserable place on earth" (the slums of Bombay) to using animation (which both auteurs despise) and splicing it together in segments of no longer than half a second. The stakes get hairiest when Trier demands that Leth make himself the subject of the film — the original depicts a young man and a woman in separate minimalist sets going through the banalities of their seemingly perfect life. The whole exercise is a poignant game of one-upsmanship. Leth maintains his sangfroid even as his creative spirit is hogtied, and nothing can top the fascination of seeing Trier sadistically dig at his mentor while feasting on a mound of caviar between obstructions, assuring Leth that "it’s okay to make a piece of crap." In Danish with English subtitles. (90 minutes)
BY TOM MEEK
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