Venice (AFP)
The chaotic journey of "Mona Lisa", a young girl endowed with telepathic powers who escapes from a psychiatric institution in Louisiana, seduced Sunday the Venice Film Festival, where this American film with Kate Hudson in a role against the job is in the running for the Golden Lion.
"Mona Lisa and the blood moon" ("Mona Lisa and the blood moon"), a surprising mix of fairy tale and video game punctuated by techno and metal music, is signed by the American of Iranian origin Ana Lily Amirpour , one of the five female directors in competition (out of a total of 21 films) this year in Venice.
She had already received in 2016 the Special Jury Prize for her second film, "The bad batch", with Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey.
Jun Jong Seo, 27-year-old South Korean actress, plays this extraordinary character who arrives overnight in New Orleans.
She upset the daily life of Bonnie Belle, a single mother stripper played by Kate Hudson, surprising and brilliant in this character far from the romantic comedies that made her famous.
It doesn't take long for Mona Lisa to form a strong bond with Charlie, Bonnie's lonely little boy.
The two companions then decide to embark on a new life: a journey that is not a walk in the park but which allows them both to grow up in the middle of a world of pretenses in which a drug salesman is reveals a guardian angel.
Ana Lily Amirpour, the director of the film "Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon", at the Venice film festival, September 5, 2021 Filippo MONTEFORTE AFP
In a press conference, Kate Hudson recounted how she had found herself "at three in the morning, lying on the ground in Bourbon Street", the main artery of the French Quarter, a meeting place for revelers and jazz lovers in the heart of La New Orleans.
"That's when I thought to myself that we really do crazy stuff for movies," joked the 42-year-old actress, who was the heroine of "How to get dumped in ten lessons."
"She was up to her neck pregnant when I met her and I told her: + Get your baby out and come and do the stripper!", Said the director for her part.
"The fantastic films that I liked when I was a child gave power to the + outsiders +. I found heroes in them who made me visible and fueled my quest for freedom", testified the 40-year-old filmmaker, whose parents fled Iran after the 1979 revolution.
© 2021 AFP