RIGA IFF SELECTION
The film is based on The Childhood of a Leader – short story by Jean-Paul Sartre (1939) and John Fowles’s 1965 novel The Magus. A child’s angelic face conceals a budding sociopath in the audacious, senses-shattering feature debut from actor Brady Corbet. A powerhouse international cast led by Robert Pattinson and Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) headlines this dark domestic nightmare. Set amidst the turmoil of World War I and its aftermath, it follows the young son of an American diplomat living in France as he learns to manipulate the adults around him-a monstrous coming of age that ominously parallels the rising tide of Fascism in Europe. A stylistically fearless tour-de-force, The Childhood of a Leader reaches fever-pitch delirium thanks to ravishing cinematography and a thunderous score by legendary, boundary-pushing musician Scott Walker.
The movie received Venice Horizons Award for best director and Luigi De Laurentiis Award in Venice Film Festival (2015). It won TAP Revelation Award in Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival (2015) and Special Prize of the Jury in Istanbul International Film Festival (2016).
