With The Five Obstructions, Lars von Trier enters the world of documentary filmmaking alongside his idol, Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth. In 1967, Leth made a twelve-minute film called The Perfect Human. In the year 2000, von Trier challenged Leth to remake his film five times, each time with a new obstruction to force Leth to rethink the story and characters of the original film. Lars von Trier sets a game in motion that is full of traps and vicious turns, hoping each time Leth will fail—but it turns out to have a surprising outcome.