Dir: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson. With: Cate Blanchett, Roy Dupuis, Charles Dance, Takehiro Hira, Alicia Vikander. Canada-Germany 2024. 109 mins. English, French, Swedish, German with English subtitles
At the G7 summit in Saxony, world leaders including the German chancellor (Cate Blanchett), US president (Charles Dance) and European Commission secretary-general (Alicia Vikander) are trying to agree on a joint statement tackling the latest global crisis. The politicians are so wrapped up in the dry business of drafting and redrafting their declaration that they miss some ominous signs: their aides have disappeared, leaving them alone in the woods, and a thick purple fog is setting in. Before long, the clueless politicians are battling bog monsters, a giant pulsating brain and a catfishing AI chatbot.
This is the nightmarish fairytale world constructed by Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg, The Green Fog) and his frequent co-collaborators, the Johnson brothers. Funny, grotesque, and incisive in its skewering of the toothless bureaucracy of modern political discourse, this is a surreal satire with a visual identity and language all of its own.
