KING BABY

written and directed by Kit & Arran

Two contemporary men who have rejected the modern world in favor of a life where they can say and do whatever they want. They play out a ludicrous daily cycle of pomp and ceremony with a punishingly unequal power dynamic. When the King dreams about a beguiling woman, he orders the Servant to create a mannequin Queen from the wood of a tree.

The King marries the mannequin Queen and all seems better than ever in this strange dystopian Kingdom. Both men treat this wooden object as though she was ‘real’. 

Enchanted by his own creation, the Servant develops an ardent love for the Queen whilst the brutish King begins to treat her increasingly badly. Plagued by paranoia and disturbing nightmares of emasculation, the King relinquishes his crown to the Servant in a bid to regain a sense of peace. As a puppet leader, the Servant is still beholden to the King’s power until he sees an opportunity to improve the Kingdom and emancipate the Queen.  He revolutionizes the Kingdom with a new set of forward-thinking and liberal decrees. The power has truly shifted, but not necessarily for the better. What ensues is a whirlwind of isolation, madness, and murderous megalomania that puts two very different types of masculinity under scrutiny, ending in a final image of horrifying potency. 

DIRECTORS NOTE

The idea for King Baby grew from a desire to explore patriarchal structures through the microcosm of a simple allegorical fairytale. 

Initially written as a piece of theatre, we wanted to merge the two disciplines of theatre and film to create a movie that thrives within its geographic and budget limitations. Inspired by the playful absurdism of Harold Pinter and the revisionist fairy tales of Angela Carter, we want our film to feel mischievous, destabilizing, and thought-provoking. 

As a transgender and cis-gender duo, we have always been surprised by the common ground that we share amidst our very different experiences. Whilst the King and Servant are inspired by politicians and world leaders on both the Left and the Right of the political spectrum, we had to dig deep into our own masculinity and face some uncomfortable truths of our own. We wanted to critique patriarchal power, but to explore it with nuance; allowing our characters at times to feel likable, pitiable, funny, and relatable. It felt imperative to show more than the monstrous, cruel, and violent facets of these kinds of men to demonstrate how we can all be seduced by and therefore complicit in enabling their despicable behavior.

 - Kit & Arran (Directors)

UK/France - 82 mn - 2024 - Ghosts City (France) / Chimple Pictures (UK), with the support of the TRIP (CNC).

Producers: Franck Priot & Ye Shu, Kit & Arran, Marc Petey. Coproducers: Xavier Arias, Pascal Salafa. Executive Producers: Davin Ansel, Sophie Duez.

Festival selections: International Film Festival Rotterdam – Bright Future – World Premiere (2024); New Horizons International Film Festival, Wrocław, Poland (2024); Edinburgh International Film Festival – Midnight Madness (2024); Prishtina International Film Festival, Kosovo (2024); SXSW Sydney, Australia (2024); Belfast Film Festival – New Cinema (2024); London International Fantastic Film Festival l – Best First Feature – 2024.