Seven leaders of the world’s most powerful countries must fend for themselves in a mystical forest filled with odd and hilarious horrors. Rumours is an endlessly unexpected and always absurd satire that prods at the embers of neoliberal failure.
In response to an unnamed global crisis, the leaders of the G7 countries – made up of some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful democracies – gather together beneath a gazebo in a forest to draft a provisional statement. However, they soon find themselves left on their own in the face of eerie sights and sounds. Panicked, the seven quickly become lost in the woods amidst a thickening fog and the frightening appearance of reanimated bog bodies. What is to befall our once so-called noble leaders, now bumbling and inept fools who begin to reveal their farcical desires and out-of-touch worldviews?
Never shy in its outlandishness, Rumours is an outrageous politico-satirical playground. The auteurs from Winnipeg, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, juggle absurdity and nonsense to deliver a genre-bending commentary skewering the emptiness of neoliberal political messaging, sandwiched between a barrage of intentionally incoherent meta-babble. Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, Alicia Vikander, and a terrific ensemble cast, as the world leaders, revel in the most spectacularly oddball roles of their careers. A gigantic glowing brain is not even the strangest thing they’ll encounter in this delirious, kooky and preternatural forest.
– Olivia Popp
Film details
Countries of production
Canada, Germany
Year
2024
Festival edition
IFFR 2025
Length
109"
Medium/Format
DCP
Language
English
Premiere status
None
Director
Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson
Producer
Evan Johnson, Philipp Kreuzer, Liz Jarvis, Guy Maddin, Galen Johnson, Lars Knuden
Screenplay
Evan Johnson
Cinematography
Stefan Ciupek
Editing
Galen Johnson, Evan Johnson, John Gurdebeke
Production design
Zosia Mackensie
Sound design
Bálint Zándoki, Martin Lee, Graham Rogers, Dave Rose, Clare Dobson, John Gurdebeke
Music
Kristian Eidnes Andersen
Principal cast
Cate Blanchett, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Takehiro Hira, Rolando Ravello, Alicia Vikander, Roy Depuis, Charles Dance