Emperor - Villa Albertine

EMPEROR is an interactive and narrative experience in virtual reality, which invites the user to travel inside the brain of a father, suffering from aphasia.

It is the story of a man who’s lost his ability to speak, and of the daughter trying to communicate with him. It is the story of a woman, who wasn’t given the chance to know the man behind her father, now obscured by this illness.

As she tries to piece together what remains of his language, she discovers that his relationship to words is connected to his memories. The memories of an entire lifetime… Step by step, clue after clue, we will dive alongside her into the inner world of this man, in an attempt to decipher the story he can no longer tell us.

In a monochrome aesthetic, close to traditional animation, this personal story is told as a journey with surreal overtones, offering to explore aphasia as a distant country. EMPEROR is a poetic experience of the loss of one’s faculties, of the passing of time, and of the bonds which, through it all, remain.

The Directors

Marion Burger (Screenwriter and Director)

Born in France in 1987, Marion Burger is a production designer on several feature films including Divines by Houda Benyamina (Caméra d’or 2016), Gagarine by Jérémy Trouilh and Fanny Liatard (Cannes 2020) and more recently Mother and Son by Léonor Serraille (Cannes 2022). On this occasion, she has been awarded the Young Film Technician Prize for her work.

Ilan J. Cohen (Screenwriter and Director)

Born in France in 1984, Ilan has been working as a first assistant director since 2008 (including Noaz Deshe’s White Shadow, Lodge Kerrigan’s Rebecca H., and Bertrand Bonello’s Sarah Winchester) while pursuing his own screenwriting and directing music videos (Rone, Gaspar Claus).

General Informations

Directors : Marion Burger & Ilan J. Cohen

Production Company : ATLAS V (France)

Coproduction Company : Reynard Films (Germany), France Télévisions (France)

Awards : Venice – BEST ACHIEVEMENT Stereopsia – BEST UX DESIGN XRMust Awards 2023 – BEST VISUAL DESIGN Festival International du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand – Best VR Film SXSW Film Festival – AUDIENCE AWARD Thessaloniki Intl Documentary Festival – Best Golden Alexander International Festival of Animated Films (ANIFILM) – Best VR Numix Awards – Best Experience XR Annecy Film Festival – Festival Connexion Special VR Award

Year of creation : 2023

Minimum Age : 13

English Dubbing