Wild, wacky and undeniably clever, Rumours is a dark and highly entertaining comedy that pokes fun at incompetent leaders by throwing them into a real crisis and watching things explode.
Led by Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett as Chancellor of Germany, and buoyed by a great cast who know what to do with sharp satirical material, seven world leaders meet at the G7 summit and try to compose a joint statement on an undefined international crisis.
Gathered in rural Germany, the ensemble group finds themselves lost in a strange wood, beset by thick fog and menaced by strange ‘characters’ such as undead bog bodies and a giant brain. Rumours is ultimately about how power players obsess over worthless nonsense even as the world is falling apart. They are more interested in crafting their provisional statements for the press and displaying a sense of unity than they are in creating real and meaningful change. Their preoccupation with getting their message written while stuck in a presumed apocalyptic scenario is both damning and hysterically funny.
Led by Canadian director Guy Maddin, this film defies easy categorization. Biting satire, black comedy, horror thriller, science fiction drama, political commentary – or all of the above? Rumours plays at the Salmar Classic Theatre this week on Saturday, November 30 at 5 pm.
