A christlike man in films of Lars von Trier: on the nature of the dialogue with F. M. Dostoevsky

The article is concerned with the image of a Christlike person in films of modern Danish director and screenwriter Lars von Trier. Evolution of this image in von Trier's artistic consciousness is traced on the ba­sis of two film trilogies («Golden Heart» and «USA»). In the «Golden Heart» the artist expands traditional Christian notions of virtue, while «Dogville» and «Manderlay» are aimed at revising the Christian ideal of self-sacrifice: in these films it is presented as something unfeasible in the world dominated by the evil. A hypothesis concerning correlation between works of the Danish director and works by F. M. Dostoevsky is advanced. In von Trier's films focus on Dostoevsky's traditions is paradoxically combined with controversy, which allows for concluding that von Trier's artistic logic is oriented not so much towards Dostoevsky as towards his character Ivan Karamazov. Thematic link is traced between the trilogies under study and movies of the last trilogy «Depression», in which the polemical tone is replaced by the intention to curse Christiani­ty.