Julien Donkey-Boy

Werner Herzog dances to blues music in the living room with a gas mask over his face, his (film) son is caught up in a brawl with a garbage container on the street, and Julien talks to himself as Hitler in the basement: welcome to the bizarre world of JULIEN DONKEY-BOY. As eccentric as Harmony Korine's second feature may appear to be, it is also his most biographical. Shot in his grandmother's living room (and featuring her as well), the film is dedicated to his uncle, who – like the eponymous character Julien (Ewan Bremner from TRAINSPOTTING) – is suffering from schizophrenia. Korine's goal was to provide a more realistic depiction of the disease than Hollywood’s tear-jerkers manage to convey. In this process, he stuck (at least mostly) to the rules of DOGMA 95 – JULIEN DONKEY-BOY was the first American film made in keeping with the commandments of the Danish filmmakers around Lars von Trier. Like von Trier in his Dogma film IDIOTS, Korine aptly delivers a disturbing, funny, and ultimately also touching close examination of people with mental disorders.