Angelo

Austrian director Markus Schleinzer’s second feature is a scathing drama about an 18th-century African man kept in a cage by European nobility.

"Longtime Michael Haneke collaborator Schleinzer's second feature is loosely based on a tragic and disturbing true story. Brought to Europe in captivity as a boy, Angelo Soliman (Makita Samba) is raised by a seemingly kind noblewoman and accepted in Viennese high society thanks to his education and his musical and dramatic talent. But Angelo will always be at best a curiosity in this brutally racist world. Presented as a series of highly formalistic vignettes with fabulous costumes and production design, the film's placid detachment and arch irony – highlighting the absurdity of aristocratic life – are an eerie contrast to the story's howl of rage at the dehumanisation of racism and colonialism." (Sydney Film Festival)

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