The Colombian director will compete for the Golden Lion at the seventy-sixth edition of the Venice International Film Festival in Italy with his first English-language film Waiting for the Barbarians, based on the novel by J.M. Coetzee
he seventy-sixth Venice International Film Festival is to be held between August 28 and September 7, organized by La Biennale di Venezia. It is the oldest film festival in the world and one of the most prestigious, listed in category "A" by the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations (FIAPF) along with festivals in Berlin, Cannes, San Sebastián, and a handful of other cities. The festival’s highest honor is the Golden Lion (Leone d'Oro), which the jury awards to the Best Film in competition, followed by the Silver Lion (Leone d'Argento) for the Best Director, and the Grand Jury Prize.
Waiting for the Barbarians, the film directed by Ciro Guerra and produced by Michael Fitzgerald, has been selected as one of 21 films competing for the Golden Lion in the official selection, which includes films by established directors such as Roman Polanski, Steven Soderbergh, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, James Gray, Olivier Assayas, Atom Egoyan, Roy Andersson, Pablo Larraín, Todd Phillips, and others.
Waiting for the Barbarians is an adaptation of the book by J.M. Coetzee, an allegorical tale that addresses themes of colonization and abuse in war. It follows an English magistrate of a small colonial town (played by Mark Rylance) that begins to question his loyalty to the empire even as he tries to ignore an imminent and inevitable war with the so-called barbarians. The novel by the South African writer and Nobel Laureate, published in 1980, is considered to be among the great books of the twentieth century. When it was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003, the prize committee described it as a political thriller “in which the idealist’s naivety opens the gates to horror”.
The film was shot in Morocco and stars Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Mark Rylance. Other Colombians joined Ciro Guerra in the production of the film, such as Andrés Barrientos on the directing team, Angela Bravo in the art department, and Inti Zamora, among others.
New York's Michael Fitzgerald is the film's producer. Fitzgerald’s previous films include The Homesman, Closer to the Moon, and In the Electric Mist.
