The Twentieth Century

Wouldn’t it be great if you could rewrite history to make it more entertaining? That’s exactly what Matthew Rankin has done in his debut feature, as he reimagines the formative years of former Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King as a series of abject humiliations. Divided into chapters, we follow King through an absurd political hellscape as he strives to reach the top. Using antiquated analogue techniques and Monty Python-esque animation and humour, this bizarre biopic plays fast and loose with history as it riotously roasts both its subject and the political legacies of Canada.

‘[The inspiration] began with the diary of Mackenzie King. I read it as a university student and I was really affected by it. I felt personally connected to his most extreme outpourings. I was really amazed by how maudlin, how hypersensitive and confused and bewildered and panic-stricken the diary was. I would say a diary as a historical document is not an authoritative, factual chronology. I think of it as a parallel consciousness, somewhere between a dream and a highly subjective processing of the chaos of your life. So I really wanted the movie to feel like this. I describe it as kind of a nightmare that King would have had in 1899. The people and events of his life are re-processed into this surreal order, much like when we dream.’

Taken from a Slashfilm interview with Director, Matthew Rankin