“A comedy of continual linguistic and visual invention...
an astute reflection on the decline of male power.”
- Roberto Oggiano, Cineuropa
“A brilliant, insightful and hilarious fable”
- Olivier Thibodeau, Panorama Cinema
“Combining painful topics with playfulness comes naturally to the filmmakers”
Marta Balaga, Variety
SYNOPSIS
KING BABY is a darkly comic feature film about a ‘King’ and a ‘Servant’ who live, completely isolated, in the crumbling ruins of a castle surrounded by thick forest. Two contemporary men have rejected the modern world in favour of a life where they can say and do whatever they want. They play out a ludicrous daily cycle of pomp and ceremony with a punishingly unequal power dynamic. When the King dreams about a beguiling woman, he orders the Servant to create a mannequin Queen from the wood of a tree. The King marries the mannequin Queen and all seems better than ever in this strange dystopian Kingdom. Both men treat this wooden object as though she were ‘real’.
Enchanted by his own creation, the Servant develops an ardent love for the Queen whilst the brutish King begins to treat her increasingly badly. Plagued by paranoia and disturbing nightmares of emasculation, the King relinquishes his crown to the Servant in a bid to regain a sense of peace. As a puppet leader, the Servant is still beholden to the King’s power until he sees an opportunity to improve the Kingdom and emancipate the Queen. He revolutionises the Kingdom with a new set of forward-thinking and liberal decrees. The power has truly shifted, but not necessarily for the better.
What ensues is a whirlwind of isolation, madness, and murderous megalomania that puts two very very different types of masculinity under scrutiny.
DIRECTORS’ NOTE
“The idea for KING BABY grew from a desire to explore patriarchal structures through a simple allegorical fairytale.
Initially written as a play, we wanted to merge the two disciplines of theatre and film to create a movie that thrives within its geographic and budget limitations. Inspired by the playful absurdism of Harold Pinter and the revisionist fairy tales of Angela Carter, we want our film to feel mischievous, de-stabilising and thought-provoking.”
As a transgender and cis-gender duo we have always been surprised by the common ground that we share amidst our very different experiences. Whilst the King and Servant are inspired by politicians and world leaders on both the left and right of the political spectrum, we had to dig deep into our own masculinity and face some uncomfortable truths of our own.”
KING BABY is a tripartite production between the UK, Canada and France. We were lucky enough to shoot in Chateau d’Allegre in the Occitanie region of France. The castle sits atop a mountain surrounded by ancient forest, a resplendent maze of crumbling ruins and history. The strange, heady magic of the castle sustained our International cast and crew for three gloriously intense weeks.
Ghosts City’s production team embraced the challenge of turning this remote location into a fully functional film set.
“The castle and its ruins provide us with a magnificent setting which gives the characters’ world an epic dimension. We would have never been able to organize this location without the help of volunteers from the Association de Sauvegarde du Château d'Allègre,the non-profit association that protects and takes care of the site.”
Franck Priot, Producer.