THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER

"Dominated by dread, veering into arthouse horror at points, this compulsively dark story takes no prisoners … an uncompromisingly grown-up, intelligent, allusive cineaste experience." – Screen Daily

Winner of both the Orizzonti Award for Best Director and the Best Debut Feature Award at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, The Childhood of a Leader is a portrait of a tyrant as a young boy.

Taking place between the World Wars, the films follows an American family relocating to the French countryside so that the father (Game of Thrones' Liam Cunningham) can advise on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. His son, Prescott (Tom Sweet in a compellingly sinister debut performance), is left in the care of his devout Christian mother (Bérénice Bejo), with help from a housekeeper and the French teacher. Slowly but surely, Prescott starts to take over the household, becoming increasingly impossible to deal with, and showing the beginnings of fascist leanings.

The directorial debut of 27-year-old actor Brady Corbet, who co-wrote the film with his wife Mona Fastvold, The Childhood of a Leader is a wealth of references to masters both old and new, cinematic and otherwise – from Jean-Paul Sartre to Michael Haneke. Featuring a roaring score written by avant-garde icon Scott Walker, and a cameo performance by Robert Pattinson, it's a satirically dark and ominous fable about the formation of evil.

"No guts, no glory. Actor Brady Corbet flings himself off the cliff of his directorial debut with a defiant disregard for safety or convention that is startling, admirable and exceptionally unusual." – The Playlist