Slideshow
NIGHT OF THE KINGS
Now Streaming
ONE WEEK ONLY – MUST END THURSDAY, MARCH 4
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY PHILLIPE LACÔTE
VIRTUAL CINEMA EXCLUSIVE!
Rental includes a Q&A with Lacôte & David Oyelowo
The notorious La MACA prison, a foreboding complex outside of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city, is run largely by its inmates, some of the most violent criminals in this West African country. Director Philippe Lacôte’s second feature reimagines the Arabian Nights as the most dystopian of fairy tales, with the Scheherazade role played by a new young detainee (a mere pickpocket) ordered to tell stories on pain of death to a horde of inmates until the red moon falls. Prison leader Blackbeard, in failing health, is played by Steven Tientcheu of LES MISERABLES. Roman launches into a story about the bandit Zama King and his Microbes gang, holding his audience rapt as he spins tales – brilliantly visualized by Lacôte – that travel through the country’s recent civil wars and distant political past, even recounting a dazzling story of an 18th century queen (played by Ivorian hair sculptress and Instagram star Laetitia Ky). Critically acclaimed since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, NIGHT OF THE KINGS is shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
IVORY COAST 2020 93 MINS. IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES NEON
Virtual Cinema program supported by the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation.
Reviews
“An intoxicating and immersive visual experience. A visually stunning fantasy.”
– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
“4 STARS! An assured, energetic piece of epic filmmaking, one that celebrates how storytelling, oration, and folklore teach us about our past so we might change our present.”
– Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
“Magical in the way of live theater, poignant, graceful, and exhilarating. Weaving a gangster drama into a fairytale of sorcerers, swindlers, and kings makes for a film that is in turn whimsical and harrowing… a riveting and radiant tribute to the power of storytelling, which gives voice to voiceless, humanity to the demonized, and hope to the hopeless.”
– Kristy Puchko, Pajiba
“A rare United States release from Ivory Coast — braids together its struggles for survival to suggest an entire country fighting to emerge.”
– Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times