IFC Films will release MANDERLAY in New York and Los Angeles on February 3

Inspired by Jean Paulhan's "Happiness is Slavery" (the preface to Pauline Reage's "Story of O") - a true story of Barbados slaves who unsuccessfully begged to be re-enslaved, then killed their former master and moved back into their old quarters -- MANDERLAY is filmmaker Lars von Trier's (BREAKING THE WAVES, DANCER IN THE DARK) second film in his planned "American" trilogy, and a provocative follow-up to his much-discussed 2003 film DOGVILLE. An official selection at this year's Cannes, Toronto and New York film festivals, MANDERLAY features a revelatory performance from Bryce Dallas Howard (THE VILLAGE), as well as an exceptional ensemble cast including Danny Glover, Isaac De Bankhole, Willem Dafoe and Lauren Bacall.



Set in the American South in the late 1930s, MANDERLAY begins as Grace (Howard) and her father (Dafoe) come upon a plantation called Manderlay where the black workers, decades after the Civil War, continue to serve as slaves. Outraged and determined to liberate them, Grace stays at Manderlay with her father's attorney and a few armed gangsters so that she may install both democracy and justice. Utterly convinced she is doing the right thing, Grace soon discovers how dangerous it can be to challenge the status quo and that justice and democracy, while very nice ideas, are also imperfect and messy and can even be deadly, especially when Mother Nature bears down on the proceedings.

A timely look at issues that have long plagued this country, and have been brought to the forefront once again by recent tragic events, MANDERLAY unsettlingly explores the attempt of a woman determined to right one of mankind's greatest wrongs-and what her struggle represents to this country's laden past, alarming present and troublingly uncertain future.