FEATURE FILM COMPETITION: KING BABY
TIME: 13:30, Saturday 30th November
VENUE: BLOC cinema
KING BABY
| Director | Kit Redstone and Arran Shearing |
| Producer | Franck Priot, Ye Shu, Arran Shearing, Kit Redstone, Marc Petey |
| Running Time | 1:29:00 |
| Genre | Dark Comedy |
| Country | UK, France |
| Language | English |
| Main Casts | Graham Dickson, Neil Chinneck |
| Screenplay | Kit Redstone Arran Shearing |
| Premiere Status | London, England |
| 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 different types of masculinity under scrutiny. |
| DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT | The idea for King Baby grew from a desire to explore patriarchal structures through a simple allegorical fairytale. 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 the right, we had to dig deep into our own masculinity and face some uncomfortable personal truths. 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. |
| PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION | Festival Manager Circle Collective (Contact Kyle Greenberg kyle@circlecollective.com) |
London International Fantastic Film Festival 