The Benevolent Dictator

  • 9 10
  • 2016
  • 35min
The Benevolent Dictator
  • Original Title: The Benevolent Dictator (2016)

An Austrian Jew in his nineties lives in the solitude of his wealthy house in Malawi. This film shows us his life in the midst of the precariousness of his subordinates.

The Benevolent Dictator
Awards

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS: Cinema Du Reel/ IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival

The Benevolent Dictator. A curious portrait of the colonial mechanism

In his nineties, a Viennese Jew lives in Malawi, where he remarried, after working many years for organisations such as Unesco, but also African despots.

In his adopted country, his relatively wealthy situation long ago established unequal relationships between his twelve domestics, his wife and himself.

Midway between a lucid analysis of colonial mechanisms (especially economic ones) and outright cynicism, his discourse becomes even more disquieting when contrasted with the daily and almost silent situations of his entourage working for him non-stop.


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