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Learning
Difficulties Major 
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ALT__TITLE |
1. Idioterne
2. Dogma 95 - Idioterne |
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DISABILITY |
Learning
Difficulty |
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NOTES |
This film
defeats categorisation because it's about faking |
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In the
suburbs of Copenhagen a group of ordinary people |
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decide to be
people with learning difficulties. They do this in |
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reaction to
the ills (here insert your own bete-noire) of society. |
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By acting in
this way they upset people, create anarchy and |
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ridicule
everything they don't like. |
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You're left
to make up your mind how justified these people |
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are. Or if
this is a sort of agit-prop which will make people |
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reflect on
the society they live in. Or are they just copping |
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Copenhagen,
like Amsterdam, is quite different from other |
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towns in
their respective countries. Liberties are allowed there |
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which don't
exist elsewhere. |
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I lived in a
commune in Copenhagen where art students had |
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been given
the right to use an old office block awaiting |
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demolition
as studios. Occasionally police would knock on |
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your front
door early in the morning and ask if you slept there. |
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You, in your
pyjamas or nightdress or usually less, answered |
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"No". And
the police went away. |
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It's not
funny or thought provoking or metaphorical just stupid. |
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Resembles
candid camera a TV show which tried to fool and |
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Mixes real
disabled people (with Down's Syndrome) and |
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actors. One
is in a wheelchair. There's also hardcore (non- |
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Van Trier
interviewed in The Guardian by Simon Hattenstone |
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refers to
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Steiner schools, |
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"Steiner set
up a school for people with Down's Syndrome. |
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He said they
were angels, not in the sense they were very |
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good, but in
the sense they were sent from God because they |
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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."
One hopes that Trier was talking from ignorance and not knowledge of
Steiner. Steiner headed the German Theosophical society and then
branched off to form his own Anthroposophical society which was the
repository of many weird beliefs. He became increasingly obsessed with
the occult and mysticism. It is amazing that today his schools are
still 'sanctioned'. As you can see from the quotation above his
attitude towards disabled people was severely patronising. |
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Notes
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