Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003) opens with the self-appointed philosopher-in-residence of a tiny mountain hamlet speculating over a solution to the moral shortcomings of his neighbours. Thomas Edison, Jr (Paul Bettany) hazards that what is needed to awaken the townsfolk of Dogville from their dogmatic slumbers is something new, something different, something suggestive of a future. ‘Something tangible, like a gift.’ The gift duly arrives in the form of a beautiful young runaway (Nicole Kidman), who stumbles accidentally upon the town after taking fiight from an unspecified figure of authority. Appropriately, she is called Grace – a name connoting God's gift of unmerited and spontaneous, unconditional salvation. As the film's narrator observes, Grace ‘hadn't chosen Dogville from a map, or sought out the town for a visit. She had elected to give herself up to him at random, as – yes – a gift. Generous, very generous, thought Tom.’

After a difficult start, the people of Dogville warm to Grace, who, under Tom's guiding influence, distinguishes herself by giving them precisely what they do not need, doing the jobs that no one knew needed doing prior to her arrival. This early phase of warmth does not last, however.