PACIFICTION

Albert Serra / France, Spain, Germany, Portugal / 2022 / 162 min

A tropical fiction and a slow-motion jet-set thriller from one of today’s greatest cineastes. A deep, dark trip into the abyss of imperialism, and one of the most beautiful film experiences of the year.

With ‘Pacifiction’, CPH:DOX veteran Albert Serra has made the most overwhelming feature film of the last year in cinema – a work that must be experienced on the big screen. Set in Tahiti, where a French High Commissioner (a sublime Benoît Magimel in a white suit and a Hawaiian shirt) is entangled in an intricate power play between the French state and the rebellious, local community. Corruption, (post)colonial confrontations and toxic vanity run like a dark undercurrent that threatens to pull everything and everyone down with it, while a deep techno beat thumps the tropical night. A monumental, epic trip from one of the most brilliant minds in contemporary film.