The Five Obstructions

Koch Lorber Films | Release Date: May 26, 2004

6.4	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Ratings

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ChadS.Nov 9, 2005

Mikheil Kalatozishvili's "Soy Cuba"(American title: "I am Cuba) used a traditional editing style to convey its communist ideology which sort of undermined their intent to be oppositional to first-world cinema. In Jorgen Leth's Mikheil Kalatozishvili's "Soy Cuba"(American title: "I am Cuba) used a traditional editing style to convey its communist ideology which sort of undermined their intent to be oppositional to first-world cinema. In Jorgen Leth's first film(set in Cuba), cineasts wake up because the two Danes make a correction on the 1964 classic by applying a Vertovian(Dziga Vertov) approach to editing(eyeblinks) that would've been helped strenghten its pro-Castro stance. "The Five Obstructions" is dazzling, sometimes infuriating. Jorgen Leth proclaims that all animated films are uninteresting, which would seem to infer that his own stab at a cartoon is better than "Fantasia", "Princess Mononoke", and Richard Linklater's "Waking Life", whom Leth owes a nod to. That said, the animated short is great; the Calcutta film, likewise, which Von Trier hillariously slams. Hillarious, because the author of the Dogma manifesto ignores his own obstructions(mainly the tenet which states that there be no genre) when he made "Dancer in the Dark". "The Five Obstructions", like Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation", finds a new way to document real life.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

CarlB.Jan 3, 2009

The concept behind the film is interesting, but the film itself is boring.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

JLuis_001Apr 30, 2023

The Five Obstructions is an impressive artistic exploration between mentor and pupil.
A play between the two that opens a huge door into how Von Trier worked and why he has received so much criticism for it.
Even though the film is 20 yearsThe Five Obstructions is an impressive artistic exploration between mentor and pupil.
A play between the two that opens a huge door into how Von Trier worked and why he has received so much criticism for it.

Even though the film is 20 years old, I had never seen it and I think it's the greatest display of his insecurities and it's impressive to see how he allowed them to be exposed.

A film for a very limited audience but rewarding all the same.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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