Seneca

HE WHO IS BRAVE IS FREE

“People can be divided into two groups:
One who goes before and accomplishes something, and one who comes after and criticizes.” – Seneca

The Stoic philosopher and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca has long served as a mentor and advisor to Nero. Keeping in good terms with power has made Seneca as wealthy as he has been questioned. His once malleable protégé Nero has grown into a powerful, brutal and paranoid emperor. A man-child who rules the empire according to his own will and can sentence anyone to death at will. The latest victim of Nero's persecution mania is Seneca.

Nothing can prepare you for the crazy extravaganza of eloquence, violence and daring choices that is Seneca . Robert Schwentke's ( Der Hauptmann , The Divergent Series , Red , ) film is bursting with colorful scenery, inventively filmed by Belgian photographer Benoît Debie who is known from his close collaboration with Gaspar Noé on Irreversible, Love and Enter the Void . The film flows with verbal duels fought between well-matched opponents. The script is by Schwentke and Matthew Wilder, with much of the dialogue directly from Seneca's surviving writings. In the lead role we see the always brilliant John Malkovich. He is well accompanied by Tom Xander ( Jolt ) in the role of Nero and actors such as Geraldine Chaplin ( Barnhemmet ), Andrew Koji ( Bullet Train ), Mary-Louise Parker ( Red ) and Julian Sands ( The Ghosts of Monday ) in minor roles. It is of course bittersweet to see Sands in what we now sadly know will be one of his last roles.

“ Beautiful and bombastic ” – Critic's Notebook
“ Xander is very entertaining as the mad emperor ” – The Hollywood Reporter
“ Like Terry Gilliam at his most freaked out ” – Screen Daily
“ Really great fun ” – In Review Online
“ No one delivers caustic contempt like John Malkovich ” – The Playlist
“ Quirky, spooky, well-written, intellectually stimulating and entertaining ” – First Show