LOS ANGELES – November 7, 2000 –IFC Films has acquired all North American rights to THE KING IS ALIVE from Good Machine International and Newmarket Capital Group for its newly-formed distribution arm, it was announced today by Bob Berney, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Distribution.
THE KING IS ALIVE had its world premiere at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard category, its North American Premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and was featured at the Toronto Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema Section.
A Zentropa Production directed and co-written by Kristian Levring,
THE KING IS ALIVE is the fourth DOGME film. Levring is one of the four original founders of the DOGME movement with Lars Von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Sorn Kragh-Jacobson.
“THE KING IS ALIVE is a visually stunning film using techniques that let this amazing ensemble of actors deliver brilliant and wrenching performances,” says Berney. “Although it comes out of the DOGME tradition, Kristian’s film completely stands on its own and we are very proud to bring it to North America.”
Shot on digital video in Namibia, Africa, the film stars Academy Award nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was named Best Actress at the recent Tokyo International Film Festival for her role in the film; Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds); Bruce Davison, and French star Romane Bohringer, among others.
THE KING IS ALIVE is an absorbing tale of tourists stranded in the African desert who find shelter in a deserted diamond-mining town. As the disparate group worry whether or not they’ll ever be found, they fight off despair and pass the time by staging Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” whereby the group’s internal dynamics begin to compete with the play’s own characters.
Co-written by director Kristian Levring and Anders Thomas Jensen,
THE KING IS ALIVE was inspired by the William Shakespeare play “King Lear.”
The film is produced by Patricia Kruijer and Vibeke Windel