It is the second film in von Trier's Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves (1996) and succeeded by Dancer in the Dark (2000).

It was screened at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d’Or, despite being met with widespread criticism upon release.

Unaware that the group is pretending, Karen, a single diner, is initially sympathetic to what she believes are their genuine disabilities.

The self-styled idiots feel that the society-at-large treats their intelligence uncreatively and unchallengingly; thus, they seek the uninhibited self-expression that they imagine a romantic ideal of disability will allow.

Several try to stop her, including Jeppe who lunges himself desperately onto the hood of the car, but is ultimately removed after a tearful exchange between him and Josephine.

Then an agitated Stoffer calls for the group members to let idiocy invade their personal daily lives.

Karen attempts to spaz in front of her family by dribbling her food, but this results in a violent slap from her husband, Anders.

[8]In order to not violate Dogme 95 rule 2, forbidding the use of non-diegetic music, a harmonica player was recorded during the shooting of some scenes, including the end credits, even if he is not seen onscreen.

(sic)" from the back of the auditorium during the official screening of the film at Cannes, a spontaneous review for which he was ejected from the venue.

[13] Ofcom added the caveat that "while we do not consider the film was in breach of the Code on this occasion, we must consider carefully the acceptability of any similar content on an individual basis".

[13] The film is classified as adult-only in Argentina, Australia (though it has been shown uncut on TV with an MA rating), Chile, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

[17] Conversely, Owen Glieberman in Entertainment Weekly described the film as "a raw, funny, maddening ramble" where von Trier "seeks catharsis by pushing everything to extremes" and described the final scene as "a gripping moment of high torment".