A clash between modernism and classicism. The avantgarde film maker Klaus Wyborny identifies himself with the Roman conqueror and dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Wyborny makes his actor wearing a combination of classical and contemporary clothing, the traditional toga with a fashionable Tshirt underneath balance between present and passed. He investigates the inner life of Sulla and his relationship to nature, but also stops to examine the emerging forces that shaped the rise of Sulla’s empire. By confronting the physical Sulla with the spiritual one, Wyborny manages to sketch an exceptional portrait of the classical politician in which pornography and inner civilisation go handinhand.The story is set against the background of a bloody civil war in the Roman Empire. Sulla is in the countryside outside Rome and prepares to move into the city, that is in the hands of his enemies. He waits and turns to reflections. And to his lust.A taciturn Sulla is played by the famous actor Hans Zischler. An exuberant voiceover (read by Wyborny himself) provides a stream of consciousness that expresses the thoughts of the tormented Sulla. This picture of power is sometimes very literary, but also perverted and comic.
Film details
- Countries of production
- Germany, Italy
- Year
- 2002
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2003
- Length
- 121"
- Medium/Format
- 16mm
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