I didnt like it as much as I liked Dogville, but Manderlay certainly has the same feel to it.

Where Dogville was a fairly subtle allegory for slavery, von Trier's follow-up, Manderlay, is much more overtly about that topic. Grace, now played by Bryce Dallas Howard, comes upon a plantation that has carried on with the practice 70 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and resolves, motivated by white guilt and a certain "I know better" privilege, to free the slaves and teach them (and their former owners) to live together in free society. In the allegory, she effectively acts as the State, introducing policies to strengthen civil rights, and struggling with the legacy of slavery (namely the wages of poverty). There's a brutal examination of race relations, especially where liberal ideals might hit a wall, and ultimately, it bursts the idealistic bubble of those who think America has expiated its evil past and delivered equality. The ending makes a shocking statement that, I think, goes further than the African-American reality, and may be universal to us all. Would you embrace being a slave to the State, and have you already? Difficult material, but take me away, John Hurt's voice. I'll follow you anywhere.

A fitting companion to Dogville, though I liked its predecessor much better.