With this special news, Stefan Kitanov and the Sofia Film Fest's team congratulate all celebrating "Stefan"'s day and all cinema fans!
The first meeting with the "King of the Belgians" was in the programme of 2016 Venice Film Festival. Three years later, Nicholas III's entourage presented the new twists and turns of their journey, directed by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens at the Toronto Film Festival, one of the top five most respected film forums in the world. "The Barefoot Emperor" has already traveled half the globe across Canada through Warsaw, Ghent, Seville, Zagreb, Tallinn, Turin, Cairo, Palm Springs and Rotterdam, and we are expecting special guests at the 24th Sofia Film Fest in March.
"The Barefoot Emperor" is a dramatic comedy that tells the story of the king of Belgium (Peter van den Begin) at the sanatorium on Tito's Island in Croatia. Together with his entourage (Lucy Debe, Bruno Joris, Titus de Voogt) and a new friend - the charming Lady Liz (Geraldine Chaplin), they fall under the tutelage of the authoritarian director of the sanatorium, Dr. Otto Kroll (Udo Kier). At one point, a delegation from Vienna, led by Dr. Ilse von Stroheim (Geraldine Chaplin), headed the nationalist New Europe, appeared. Who will be the first emperor of New Europe? We will discover this in March ...
Here you can find some of the movie reviews:
"It's like Kafka meets Monty Python in a comedy by Roy Anderson."
"The Barefoot Emperor" is an absurd and beautiful political satire that is extremely entertaining - and of course, Udo Kier and Geraldine Chaplin are just brilliant!"
"While Peter van den Begin is the star in "King of the Belgians", in this film Geraldine Chaplin is most compelling. In the role of Lady Liz, she makes some of the most important remarks in "The Barefoot Emperor" ... Movies like this one remind us of the truth contained in the comedy."
Sofia Film Fest will be the FIRST festival in the world to screen the two films "King of the Belgians" and "The Barefoot Emperor" by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens one after the other in March 2020.
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"The Barefoot Emperor" is a production of Bo Films (Belgium) in co-production with Topkapi Films (Netherlands), Propeler Film (Croatia), Wajnbrosse Productions (Belgium) and Art Fest (Bulgaria) with the financial support of Bulgarian National Film Center, Eurimage and national funds of the co-producing countries.
The film's production designer is Sabina Hristova, makeup and hairstyles are made by Petya Simeonova, photographer is Nedelcho Hazerbasanov. A partner in the work on this contemporary parable is Vogue Vision - Mitko Damov.
Bulgarian producers are Mira Staleva and Stefan Kitanov.
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We're waiting for you at the #CINEMAs!