No doubt about it - this is a very provocative film. And unlike its predecessor ''Dogville'' (2003), it is not merely a stylistically brilliant anti-American diatribe, but a rare movie that dares to denounce both sides in the centuries-old debate about racism in North America. Simply put, Lars von Trier's ''Manderlay'' denounces White Americans not so much for being racist, but mostly for inadvertently making the lives of Black Americans even worse by trying to expiate that racism and set things ''right''. As for Blacks, they are denounced for foolishly trying to profit from the white guilt only to find out that it comes with a price far higher than they could ever imagine. The film is set in Alabama in 1933. Returning from Dogville with her father, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard taking over from Nicole Kidman) finds a plantation where slavery has never been abolished. With the help of gangsters, Grace frees the slaves, and steps into the power vacuum, establishing a benevolent transitional authority. She will teach the slaves to vote, and then hold elections. Soon, she hopes, they will govern themselves. The fascinating thing about the movie is that it simultaneously denounces Rooseveltian liberalism in America and... George W. Bush's misguided ''nation building'' in Iraq. Like in ''Dogville'', the film's highly theatrical visual strategy consists of placing all the action on a sound stage, with chalk lines indicating the outlines of locations - a few rudimentary props - including doors, windows, and chairs - flesh out the action.
