It's been 10 years since filmmaker Lars von Trier promised to rock cinema to its core with the Dogme 95 manifesto, his back-to-basics approach to filmmaking. In Your Hands, the 35th Dogme movie, is hardly revolutionary, but it is an occasionally powerful drama.
In a Danish women's prison, chaplain Anna (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen) finds her commitment to the Lord tested by inmate Kate (Trine Dyrholm), who apparently has the ability to perform miracles. While the other prisoners are convinced of her abilities, Anna refuses to believe that a woman who murdered her own child could be a divine messenger. Putting the Dogme obsession with natural lighting and nervy handheld cameras to effective use, director Annette K Olesen rips the redemption out of Shawshank to deliver a stark and resolutely downbeat drama about the limits of faith, hope and charity.
