PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Jessica Woodworth and Peter Van Den Begin, director and actor of the film The Barefoot Emperor.
After the success of King of the Belgians, Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens felt the need to shoot a sequel that could follow up on the situation Europe is living today: The Barefoot Emperor, screening in the Afterhours section at the 37° Torino Film Festival. With protagonist Peter Van Den Begin playing the now “emperor”, the film changes the tones of the first chapter and tries to explore the idea of a leader. What does it mean to be a Leader? What kind of a leader does Europe at the moment? Jessica Woodworth and Peter Van Den Begin try to answer but leave room for a third film on the topic.
The Barefoot Emperor: Wounded at Sarajevo as he was trying to return home, Nicolas III, the king of Belgium, wakes up on a Croatian island, Tito’s former summer residence, in a sanatorium which is run by a strange doctor with suprematist tendencies. Outside, the European Union is imploding and some people are dreaming of the Empire. The sequel of King of the Belgians, in which the directors recount, with their hallmark surrealistic and satirical vein, the political climate in the Old World. The cast from the first movie has been joined by the always sulfurous Udo Kier.
"Luka" by Jessica Woodworth is a free adaptation of the famous Dino Buzzati's book The Tartan Steppe. Developed through the Script Lab programme of the Torino Film Lab, the narrative focus on a young soldier willing to fight, facing a …
Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director, Huo Meng’s "Living the Land" captures rural China in transition, blending poetic visuals with a deep reflection on family, tradition, and modernization.
When the night stands still, at the 75h Berlinale, is a personal exploration of the silent, corrosive legacy that colonialism has left on the Filipino psyche.