
A president for 42 years in power discretely left the palace on the eve of an important electoral meeting. This disappearance - closely monitored by the media and the power contenders and even the prisoners - opens the war of successions between the different actors. The film takes shape around activism, but without losing its light touch. It asks questions about the responsibility of those in power. THE PRESIDENT is an allegory about the men who run Africa. We know they all ... (Full plot summary below)
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A president for 42 years in power discretely left the palace on the eve of an important electoral meeting. This disappearance - closely monitored by the media and the power contenders and even the prisoners - opens the war of successions between the different actors. The film takes shape around activism, but without losing its light touch. It asks questions about the responsibility of those in power. THE PRESIDENT is an allegory about the men who run Africa. We know they all like to see themselves as wild beasts-panther, crocodile, lion- if not as Gods of Africa. THE PRESIDENT tries to clear a place for the film in the arena of African politics, where truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Leave your thoughts about The President.
| Chicago ReaderJ. R. JonesA story at once timeless and contemporary, eventually pushing past the immediate matters of guilt and comeuppance to ask whether democracy can ever flourish amid an endless cycle of oppression and revenge. |
| Grolsch Film WorksAnton Bitelan uncompromising, if not entirely unforgiving parable of the trappings - and traps - of power, as well as a fairytale that leaves the viewer to decide the likelihood that they will all live happily ever after. |
| Sunday Times (UK)Camilla LongIf you want to know how Saddam Hussein went from a golden palace to a dirty hole, how Colonel Gaddafi might have looked at his death, give it a go. |
| The Arts DeskTom BirchenoughMakhmalbaf's script, co-written with his wife Marziyeh Meshkiny, doesn't finally compensate for loss of narrative direction. It's an impressive effort though. |
| Independent (UK)Geoffrey MacnabMakhmalbaf's highly original new film is a tragicomic drama about the toppling of a dictator. The twist here is that the drama is seen from the perspective of the dictator himself. |
| Radio TimesDavid ParkinsonEven though this offers poignant insights into childlike incomprehension and trust, it's less effective as a treatise on the cyclical nature of violence and the state of the modern world. |
| Times (UK)Wendy IdeThe President, the latest from the exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, was shot in Georgia and is set in an unnamed state. Yet the story.. has far-reaching resonance and relevance. |
| Little White LiesDavid JenkinsLooks at the ugliness of the world, but attempts to ask why it's that way. |
| User Reviewdan uExcellent. Very timely, given the election in the US. It's not easy being human. |
| User ReviewCarolyn MAbout as perfect - writing, acting, directing - as it gets. Even the 2 big scenes which are not shown on the screen, will form & stick in your your memory like a bur. |