JULIEN DONKEY-BOY

Movie Title: JULIEN DONKEY-BOY

Presented by: Film i Malmö

September 30, 2025

Tuesday, 19:30

Director: Harmony Korine

Year: 1999

Runtime: 94 minutes

Subtitles: English

The first Dogme 95 film made outside of Europe, Harmony Korine’s follow-up to his divisive GUMMO finds him and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (who shot the original Dogme film, Thomas Vinterberg’s THE CELEBRATION) employing the aesthetics of digital video to visionary, expressionistic effect. Deeply compassionate beneath its shocking surface, JULIEN DONKEY-BOY centers on a schizophrenic young man (Ewen Bremner) whose life with his dysfunctional family—including an abusive father (Werner Herzog) and a protective, pregnant sister (Chloë Sevigny)—is evoked through a kaleidoscope of impressionistic fragments at once unsettling and strangely, transcendently beautiful.

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30 years later, Remembering DOGME 95

In March 1995, at a Parisian conference celebrating 100 years of film, Danish director Lars von Trier handed out red pamphlets that would formally announce DOGME 95. Together with Thomas Vinterberg, Trier had created a manifesto that compiled a “Vow of Chastity” – a strict set of rules that would determine whether or not film could be considered part of the movement. DOGME 95 was a backlash against the commercial studio filmmaking of the time, with its over-reliance on technology and digital tools. Over time, many filmmakers around the world joined the movement, creating together a rich body of work. However, not all films would strictly abide by every rule, so filmmakers would be required to “confess” the ways in which they have failed to comply with their vows.

This September, at Film i Malmö, we will revisit some of the most renowned films produced by the DOGME collective, and will celebrate their audacity, non-conformism, and determination to keep independent cinema alive!