With his first Dogma-95 film director Lars von Trier opens up a completely new film platform. With a mix of home-video and documentary styles the film tells the story of a group of young people who have decided to get to know their “inner-idiots” and thus not only facing and breaking their outer appearance but also their inner.
William is constantly shooting video journals of his life to have as souvenirs for himself. Feeling the end of his relationship with Médéric, his young lover, William spends two days camping with him, taking advantage of the situation by filming the trip and their time spent with another young gay couple. The camera never stops shooting, even when Médéric decides to get it on with another guy in a tent. As Canada's first Dogme95 film, the story is shot on location, with natural lighting and live sound, the camera is hand-held and all superficial elements are forbidden. Yet somehow, in spite of these harsh restrictions during the filmmaking process, the result is warm and beautiful.
Kira and Mads try to work out their marriage, after Kira has been two years in a mental institution, but is she really ready for the real world?
Katrine is to be married. Her fiancé is gorgeous, their appartment is luxurious and her future in-laws are wealthy. Katrine only has one problem: she sometimes finds it difficult to tell the truth, and this sends her on a round-about jaunt with an old friend, Thomsen, who has just barged in unannounced from Kenya and who wants to return a favour and help Katrine with her wedding preparations. A labyrinthal excursion takes place. Tomorrow is another day, the wedding day!
A man introduces his new girlfriend to his best buddy.
Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of King Lear only manages to plunge this disparate group of travelers into turmoil as they struggle to overcome both nature's wrath and their own morality.
A French woman falls in love with a Yugoslavian man, not realizing that he is an illegal immigrant.
Gypo is the story of a working class family in Margate, Kent, a town where immigrants have become the focus of most of the public's discontent. The film tells the story of the a couple of weeks in this family's life, beginning when a young Czech girl, Tash, comes to visit. The film is made in the Dogme95 tradition, so no costumes, no lighting, no props or sets, which gives the film a gritty texture appropriate to the story.
Peter and Chris, two young American friends in their late 20s, go from South Dakota to California on a scooter, and as they travel across the American landscape they see their country through different eyes, ranging from Peter's cynically nihilistic point of view, to Chris' high expectations and romantic notions of the United States.
During a family gathering, a celebration for their father's 60th birthday, the eldest son presents a speech that reveals a shocking secret to everyone.
Cecilie and Joachim are about to get married when a freak car accident leaves Joachim disabled, throwing their lives into a spin. The driver of the other car, Marie, and her family don’t get off lightly, either. Her husband Niels works in the hospital where he meets Cecilie and falls madly in love with her.
A group of strangers find friendship, family and love within an Italian beginners’ course.
Kresten, newly wed, is on the threshold of a great career success in his father-in-law´s company. But when the death of his own father takes him back to his poverty-stricken childhood home, far out in the country, his career plans fall apart. For one thing he has to deal with his loveable, backward brother, who is now all alone; for another, he meets a stunning woman who comes to the farm as a housekeeper, in disguise of her real profession as a call-girl.
Anna, a young theology graduate, starts work as a prison chaplain. She becomes especially concerned about one inmate, Kate, regarded as difficult and withdrawn, but whom the other inmates credit with mysterious healing powers.
Undiagnosed, untreated and generally untethered schizophrenic Julien lives with his pregnant younger sister Pearl, would-be wrestler brother Chris, sympathetic grandmother, and severely depressed German father.
Story of a video camera that goes on an adventure around the world. It's stolen, pawned, bought and generally goes in and out of bedrooms, shoots commercials, follows the life of an average ordinary video camera that goes around the planet until it winds up in the hands of filmmaker Richard Martini. This film has been designated at Dogma #15 by the Danish film group Dogme95.
Cristiano is unemployed, desperate and hasn't any hope to help his autistic brother Lucio. One day Cristiano take the decision to submit Lucio as candidate to participate at a TV show called "Operazione Speranza" (Operation Hope) as the final solution to sort out their problems. But the day Cristiano is taking the preliminary interview, Lucio get lost. Lucio in his ramble meet Flaviana and starts an immediate friendship.
A bittersweet and heartfelt story about going back. In the twenty-four hours before their 20th high school reunion, five friends, a younger brother and a mysterious photojournalist are reunited by determined Mayor Margaret to remember the good times of 1981
Sonia, the daughter of a prominent publisher, is about to fulfill her lifelong dream of marrying Rosendo, a promising writer with homosexual tendencies, who pines for his fiancee far less than he does for the brand new literary award launched by his future father-in-law. The wedding shindig will bring its share of unexpected surprises. This is a film is part of the DOGME 95 Movement, described as follows: 'the goal of the Dogme collective is to purify film-making by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors' performances. Given these restrictions the story and the action of DIAS DE BODA ('WEDDING DAYS') seem much more immediate and the lapses in fluidity of the story can be forgiven - to a point.
Film director Mikel de Garay and the attractive young producer Andrea Bilbao, who hide an obscure past, are going to make a film based on the latest novel by Rosendo Carballo, a successful writer with homosexual tendencies who has put an end to his marriage of convenience and is sharing his life with a young gay man. Rosendo is going to meet with Mikel and Andrea, and three friends of the writer, Fernando, Beatriz and Nacho, join the group. Conflict arises unexpectedly when the characters start to play a dangerous game: digging around in their respective pasts in the hope that this will produce a catharsis.