The Kingdom, as seen by Julien Colonna

Can you tell us how the film came about?

It all started six years ago, when my wife announced she was pregnant. It was a real emotional upheaval. Unconsciously, I was questioning the child I was going to have, the father I was going to try to be, and inevitably the child I had been, the parents I had. A vivid childhood memory came to mind: I was ten, with my father and his friends in a makeshift camp by the sea, with nothing and no one around. We fished, slept under the stars, it was wild living. Years later, I learned that this moment held a different significance for him. With this memory in mind, I came up with the idea for the film: a father and his daughter, in an escape attempt gone bad, trying to get to know, understand, and love one another..

Can you share an anecdote from the set?

On the last day of filming, we were supposed to shoot a final fishing scene on a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Ajaccio. But at the last minute, the sky went dark, the sea rose, and we couldn’t get in touch with the boat owner. We managed to find an old fishing boat that didn’t match the initial brief at all, but it was that or nothing. So off we went to sea, not straying too far from the shore because the waves were getting more and more choppy. The sun was almost gone, we had only an hour instead of the planned four to shoot the scene. Saveriu (Pierre-Paul) was starting to feel sick. So we had to completely rethink our approach to the scene, and take a more minimalist approach, shorter dialogues, and we just made it before nightfall. During one take, Saveriu, who held it together to the end, even unintentionally caught several fish for the first time in his life when he threw the line into the water. It felt like a sign that we were on the right track.

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A few words about your cast?

Most of them were non-actors who live on Corsica, selected after numerous callbacks for their sensibility, work ethic, and depth of character. Once chosen, Ghjuvanna (Lesia) and Saveriu (Pierre-Paul) worked tirelessly. Working with them, the clan and the rest of the cast was an extraordinary adventure on a human and spiritual level. They allowed themselves to be guided without knowing quite where they were going, simply trusting in the direction I provided.

What would you like viewers to take away from your film?

Through this father-daughter relationship, struggling to exist against a backdrop where everything is slowly dying, I wanted to show the inevitable extinction of gang rule. Portraying these men as the penitents of their own existence who bear their cross until the end. If the film reaches just one young person considering this path in life and makes them question their choices, then I count that as a win.

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