Like Dogville, this second part of Lars von Trier's trilogy on America uses minimal sets and props. This took a while to get used to first time round, but now seems strangely natural. The bonus is that you concentrate largely on faces, dialogue and emotion.

Aided as before by John Hurt's sardonic voiceover, Von Trier tells a less complex tale. This time the director it is mandatory to call "mischievous" takes on race relations with the tale of a plantation left behind by time, where slavery is alive and well on a cotton plantation in 1933.

Unsurprisingly, this turns out to be another place the world would be better off without. The central figure, Grace, and her father are both replaced, with Bryce Dallas Howard and Willem Dafoe coming off the subs' bench for Nicole Kidman and James Caan.

As Grace determines to introduce "democracy" to a community of freed slaves, the result is like a cross between Animal Farm and a parody of US foreign policy. Iraq hangs heavy over it. It's another good thought-provoker, though Kidman and Caan are both badly missed.