This essay aims to trace the specific kind of political pessimism, that can be termed ‘political claustrophobia’ underlying the filmography of the Danish director Lars von Trier. Elements of this worldview are traced by analyzing two clusters of films categorized under Europa and America trilogies; namely, The Element of Crime , Epidemic , Europa , Dogville and Manderlay . Trier portrays a particularly bleak picture of the European civilization in the aftermath of the II World War. An equally claustrophobic outlook also characterizes his depiction of the life and relationships in American small towns during the 1930s. In both settings, attempts at reform and change are thwarted by entrenched social reality; leading the audience to the conclusion that there can be no political outside to the existing world.

中文翻译：

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拉斯·冯·提尔的欧罗巴和美洲三部曲中的政治幽闭恐惧症

本文旨在追溯丹麦导演拉斯·冯·提尔 (Lars von Trier) 的电影作品背后的特定类型的政治悲观主义，可以将其称为“政治幽闭恐惧症”。这种世界观的元素是通过分析归类为欧罗巴和美洲三部曲的两组电影来追踪的；即犯罪元素，流行病，欧罗巴，狗维尔和曼德勒。特里尔描绘了二战后欧洲文明的一幅特别黯淡的画面。他对 1930 年代美国小城镇的生活和人际关系的描绘也同样具有幽闭恐惧症的观点。在这两种情况下，改革和变革的尝试都被根深蒂固的社会现实所挫败；引导观众得出结论，即现有世界之外不可能有政治​​。