The Five Obstructions overcomes its definition as a documentary to become an essay film, specially because of its self-reflexivity. In this film, Lars von Trier challenges Jorgen Leth to create five different versions - dealing with five different obstacles given by him - of his Leth ́s favourite movie The Perfect Human. According to von Trier, ̈a film should be like a stone in your shoe ̈, so the filmmakers should stylistically differ themselves from others by creating obstructions to their filmmaking process. This is where resides the essayistic achievement of The Five Obstructions: the film thinks about the filmmaking process through the cinematic experience itself.