From one of the founding fathers of the "Dogma 95" Movement comes a film which is both a classic existential myth, but also a stirring affirmation of the ideals of that call to raw truth in cinema. This first Dogma film shot in English features a busload of tourists who've lost their way in the African desert: their compass was broken, and they end up stranded in an abandoned town nearly swallowed by the the sand. Waiting for what seems the only survival-savvy of their number to hike for help, they're talked into staging a performance of Shakespeare's classic plaly, King Lear, by another - who may be in reality the most survival-savvy: Henry, a decayed classical actor. The days wear on and truths good and bad are revealed one to another in a "fantastic striptease of basic human need," even in the midst of rehearsing the play whose emotional core echoes their own experience in the desert. The nakedness of souls against that stark background is exactly what the Dogma movement set out to capture; the journey of the director and the characters toward unvarnished truth and reality is bracing, cleansing and inspiring.

The King Is Alive is part of the "Dogma For Beginners" emphasis of the Featured Screenings program at Flickerings at Cornerstone Festival, July 2-5, 2003.

See complete Schedule