The King Is Alive (2001)

the audience applauded

Simply Perfect

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

While shifting airports by bus in Africa, a group of passengers is driven to the middle of nowhere in the desert by the driver that is following a defective compass. They run out of gas and they reach a ghost village inhabited by a single man, Kanana (Peter Kubheka). One passenger that has experience with desert gives five advices to the others to survive in the spot, among them to keep the spirit high, while he travels through the desert seeking for help. One intellectual in the stranded group suggests the performance of King Lear to keep the morale of the survivors. Along the days, while hope decreases, the tension increases among the survivors. "The King is Alive" is a tragedy in a tragedy, with a group of people stranded in the desert performing King Lear to keep the spirit of the survivors. The story has a breathless beginning with the driver absolutely lost and the despair of the passengers and is raw and disturbing, when the survivors return to a primitive stage of human condition. The performances are outstanding and this Dogma 85 film was released in Brazil on VHS by Cult Films Distributor. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Rei Está Vivo" ("The King is Alive")

This film isn't for everyone. It is the second dogma film that I have seen, and if this is any indication of the quality of this movement then forget Hollywood affectations, this is where the action is. There are some wonderful moments in this film. Time seems to stop, and exists only within the film. These moments are existential moments that lead us closer to recesses of our collective humanity and inhumanity in real time than anything else I have ever seen on screen.These kind of films to me reveal the illusion (it happens so rarely) that the big, fat, overweight, overwrought, pompous emperor that goes by the name of "Hollywood" (who will have a heart attack in a few years or more likely give the culture one) really is naked, with mammon and everybody else in line grovelling at his feet.Pull off your veil (if you can), turn off your TV (very difficult to do) exit Plato's cave, and start watching Dogma films if you can. When you come back out of the light, everyone will call you crazy, of course, and most everyone else will agree, that is, if they are not totally enraged by the luminance and the light, then watch out! Or completely baffled by it, as a lot of people are. Just read some of these reviews.This is real drama! Dogma is truly where the value is.

I cannot pretend to understand all the subtleties of the film as I am sure they are tied metaphorically to the subtext of King Lear, which I am only remotely familiar with. However, this film captured my attention and kept it. Wonderfully acted and refreshing casual with it's loose style, the human drama and character relationships are immediately captivating. There are some slow sections and bits where the movie strains belief, especially in the sudden decision to do a play, but overall a worthy experience for those, like myself, bored with shallow, explosion ridden, special-effects driven blockbusters. At any rate, this is one of those where you have to decide for yourself.

"The King is Alive" is a flawed and contrived mess of a movie which comes off like a self indulgent auteur's excuse to transport a bunch of actors to a Godforsaken Namibian desert where he can play major-Dogme-domo and film his selfishly conceived, silly, overwrought drama with utter disregard for the real forces of human nature, market appeal, common sense, and even good art. In other words this is one dumbassed flick and if you don't believe that, your penance is watching it. Only for filmheads, critics, dilettantes, and the like. (D)