It was in the summer of 2023, in the Vallinco region, in southern Corsica. Around Propriano, the town squares were covered with yellow and black signs: “film casting”. “For the feature film the kingdom, the text said, Directed by Julien Colonna and produced by Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, we are looking for women and men between 16 and 80 years old (for beach, pool, bar, etc. representation). »
For the pool scene, filming took place in September, at the Propriano campsite, among oleanders and inflatable alligators. A forty-year-old man in a cap and tank top guides the extras waiting in the water: “To me, you are acting crazy on the mattresses. » The black shadow of the mountains can be seen in the distance. A few minutes by car, the Miramar, the legendary hotel of the father of the man who shouts “ Cut! » in his megaphone.
Julien Colonna, Jean-Jérôme Colonna, known as “Jean-Jé”. The son, the father. Although the surname is one of the most common on the island, in Corsica everyone points to the link between the young filmmaker and his father, who died on All Saints’ Day 2006. in a car accident. The Drug Enforcement Administration, a powerful American anti-drug agency, saw Jean-Jé as one of the pillars of the “French connection”, before becoming the undisputed leader of a criminal clan that ruled the south from Corsica. Eight years before his death, a parliamentary inquiry report highlighted this little bald man, with a fleeting gaze and sunglasses. “the only Corsican godfather” Again “active and influential”.
“Universal subsidiary relationship »
How, when you love cinema, can you not miss such a crazy story, that of a father who ran away twice – the first of which lasted ten years – that of a son who only knows his father at Christmas or during his holidays in Corsica, sometimes for a hunting or fishing trip, most of the time with his father’s henchmen and bodyguards? In The KingdomIt is a young woman, Lesia, who plays the role of the godfather’s daughter, played by the excellent Ghjuvanna Benedetti, nursing student and volunteer firefighter in life, also spokesperson for the student group demanding the truth about the murder of Yvan Colonna in 2022. and daughter of an independence leader. When the character complains that they don’t tell her anything, she hears herself respond: “What is said here and what is seen, is not told to anyone. Not tomorrow nor in ten years. »
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