Although he filmed The King Is Alive in a remote Namibian diamond mining town, abandoned since the 1920s, where no one could check up on him, Danish director Kristian Levring is adamant that he worked strictly according to the Dogme manifesto. This, his second feature, is part of the first Dogme package, comprising Lars Von Trier's Idioterne (The Idiots), Thomas Vinterberg's Festen (The Celebration) and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifunes Sidste Sang (Mifune).

"I wanted to endow these authentic expression, as if they had really taken place," he continues. "I know an Englishman who lives in the Mojave Desert, and he arranges Shakespeare evenings with Chuck from the diner and Liz from the petrol station. I wanted to make a documentary about him, but then I thought it would be a good Dogme project." The play they perform is Shakespeare's "King Lear." Originally, Levring planned to use Hamlet, but Lear become a more obvious choice. "King Lear is an exceptional family drama," he explains, "and it also serves as a thesis on the impossibility of taking action, on despair, and on love affairs that both deceive and betray. Lear presents us with a rich palette of all human nature's tints. And the characters in the play are increasingly taken over by their interests:"

Educated at the Danish Film School, Levring edited and produced several features and documentaries before he directed Et Skud Fra Hjertet (A Shot From The Heart) in 1986. Since 1988 he has won 23 Danish and international awards for his commercials for clients including Carlsberg, Volvo, Peugeot, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and BMW. He shot The King Is Alive using three hand-held Sony PD 100 digital cameras, filming over six weeks on the summer of 1999. Each actor had one to three days rehearsal and was given the opportunity to improvise. "It was meant to sharpen their characters ­ who, where, how they are ­ sticking a microscope into their souls. It gave a certain tension."

Jørn Rossing Jensen