© KINOLOGY
SHE IS CONANN
CONANN
Director—Bertrand Mandico
Feature, BEL/FRA 2023—105min—18+
French original version with English subtitles
COMPETITION
Bertrand Mandico‘s dazzling and subversive queer interpretation of ‚Conan the Barbarian‘ is not for the fainthearted.
The heroic and otherwise hypermasculine fantasy figure ‚Conan the Barbarian‘ has probably always been camp. But never before has it been interpreted so consistently queer: Cerberus, the guardian of the underworld, who is here here called Rainer, has a long snout and walks on two legs. He speaks to us from beyond the grave and tells of the various reincarnations of Conann, a bloodthirsty Amazon from antiquity. The story is a wild ride through which categories such as gender, space, and time increasingly dissolve into meaninglessness.
Like Bertrand Mandico‘s previous films The Wild Boys and After Blue, Conann also captivates with its unique aesthetic, which lives fully from the lavishly artificial décor and set design. The horror fairy tale rightly celebrated its world premiere at this year‘s Cannes Film Festival.