The Idiots

The Idiots (Idioterne, 1998) is Lars von Trier's provocation, now available to watch online on iFILM. Shot as the second film of the Dogme 95 movement, it follows a small commune in suburban Copenhagen who go out in public pretending to be mentally disabled.

They call it letting out the inner idiot. In a restaurant, a swimming pool, a tour of a model housing estate, the group stages scenes that leave polite Danes squirming and stepping aside. A quiet outsider named Karen drifts into the group, and at first it all reads as a game. Then the line between rebellion and self-harm gets thin, and von Trier steers you to the exact point where the joke curdles.

The Dogme rules show in every frame: handheld camera, available light, nothing brought to the set. The result looks raw, almost like a documentary. It caused an uproar at Cannes and still splits any room that watches it. Not an easy sit, but essential if you can take von Trier at his most confrontational. Stream The Idiots (1998) online on iFILM.