I remember when I first met Lars von Trier. It wasn’t in person (of course) but I was assigned to watch ‘Dogville’ at college for a film project. Our professor warned us that it would be dark and disturbing, and recommended we stream it together as a class for emotional support. I laughed at the idea. Not to brag, but I had seen ‘Requiem for a Dream’ all by myself in bed in the middle of the night, and I had thick skin. ‘Dogville’ was going to be a breeze (after all, we all love Nicole Kidman). It wasn’t. Even though the fifteen of us sat and watched it together, we decided to fast-forward through most of it because it really was that unbearable to watch. I was young back then and I didn’t know much about living in the real world (as they commonly refer to it), but I could sense there was a truth in ‘Dogville’ that I was familiar with, even though I was sure I’d never be at Dogville or experience its ruthlessness in my real life.
A few years later, I moved back to Lahore. Now, if you’ve seen ‘Dogville’, you know exactly where I’m headed with this. If you haven’t, you should know its not good news. But before I break this news to you, let me tell you a little something about Lars von Trier. Von Trier is a highly controversial and fascinating Danish filmmaker who is best known for films such as ‘Dancer in the Dark’ (a gem of a film starring Björk), ‘Antichrist’ (a horrifying tale of madness and paranoia), and ‘Melancholia’ (my absolute favorite). Frankly, he’s a nutcase who suffers from severe anxiety and depression, and has multiple phobias, including a fear of flying. His work can be best described as insanely dark, overwhelmingly psychoanalytic, violently artistic, and almost always sexually deviant. Regardless, it’s hard to watch a single Lars von Trier movie and not want more. True story, I have friends who threw up after watching ‘Nymphomaniac’ and still suffered through all his other films for reasons unknown (he really sucks you in).
The bad news is that Dogville is everywhere guys, and it's especially present in Lahore
Sunday, 16th Feb 2014. Conference call between Anam, Sanam, and Zara.
Anam: “I’m so sorry guys, but I can’t come to Zafar’s party tonight!”
Zara: “Why, yaar? This is so stupid. Ahmed can’t stop you from going out, can he?”
Anam: “No, he’s not stopping me. It’s just that he feels that his parents are more likely to agree to our wedding if I’m not seen at parties and all…you know, where people are drinking…”
Sanam: “Oh please, Anam! How will his parents even find out?”
Anam: “It’s Lahore, yaar, everyone will know. If his parents think I drink, they will never agree. They already have a problem with my family.”
Zara: “This is so silly. Why do you want to marry into Ahmed’s stupid family anyway? I mean, what does it matter that you’re not a Rajput?”
Anam: “Zara, he loves me and I love him. It’s rare to find love so the compromise is worth it. Trust me, it’s just a party. And you guys won’t even miss me once you’re drunk!”
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In my opinion, ‘Dogville’ is von Trier’s most intense work (I watched it again last night but I still couldn’t go through all of it without skipping forward). Not only is it a masterpiece of avant-garde filmmaking, it also hails from the Dogme 95 movement which was started by von Trier himself, along with Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, in an attempt to purify filmmaking (they basically came up with these rules called the ‘Vow of Chastity’ where they decided to strip away technological gimmicks and make films as minimalistic as possible). The results were stunning. Seriously guys, ‘Dogville’ was shot all on one stage, like a black box, and it is magical. I don’t want to give too much away, but it really does a fantastic job in observing an aspect of human behavior that is innate in all of us, but hardly ever visible (I won’t tell you what it is because I really want you to watch this movie). This is all well and good, you say, but what’s the bad news? The bad news is that Dogville is everywhere guys, and it’s especially present in Lahore. I really do feel that unless we all know what it entails, we won’t ever be able to fight it and move on.
Lars von Trier
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Sunday, December 25th 2016. Conference call between Anam, Sanam, and Zara.
Zara: “Anam, please stop crying. F*** him, yaar. Just come with us. We will have fun tonight.”
Anam: “I…I can’t! I mean, I’m so confused. All these years I stayed at home…I didn’t do anything…I…I stopped going out. Now, I just ask him about tonight and first he says ‘no’ and then he’s like ‘you might as well go and do what you want because my parents aren’t gonna agree anyway.’ I mean…what did I do wrong?”
Sanam: “Anam, stop wasting your time crying over this idiot. Come out with us. He’s right in a way. His parent’s are mad so you need to stop wasting you’re time with him.”
Anam: “But I already wasted so much time. How can I just stop now? If I start going out and drinking now, it’s like I wasted all those years…you know…I wonder if his parents ever thought about me…I mean, do they think I’m not a human or something?”
