ABSTRACT
The tradition of using holy fools as critical voices by Danish directors has been well established, the group of directors associated with the Dogme 95 movement revisited the concept of idiocy, transforming the figure into a modern countercultural character. This chapter offers an evaluation of the Dogme 95 film canon to demonstrate the significance of the figure of the fool and its functions. Dogme 95 has proved to be a prolific enterprise and powerfully influential well beyond the sphere of Danish cinema. The third film in the Dogme series by director Sren Kragh-Jacobsen is a comedy in the form of a fable about the humanity to be found in idiocy and its power to instill authenticity in life. In the dogme films the trope of idiocy or foolishness functions by drawing on attributes traditionally ascribed to idiots and fools through various religious traditions.
