Glory B

Konstantinos Antonopoulos (Greece) and Luigi Campi (Italy) took part in LIM | Less is More in 2020 for the development of their feature film “Glory B”.

Synopsis

703AD. Two pilloried convicts — a naive beekeeper and a dethroned emperor — face each other and themselves, as they struggle to escape the deserted island they have shipwrecked on.

Intentions – Konstantinos Antonopoulos

Historical films tend to be associated with large productions, elaborate sets and conservative storytelling. GLORY B, based on the real story of Emperor Justinian II, is an attempt to twist the tradition of epic films, in a minimalist, two-character story that playfully explores the paradoxes of our era.

Emperor Justinian and beekeeper Zaharias need each other to exist. Zaharias’s life is meaningful only if he serves the Emperor. Justinian is an Emperor only if Zaharias believes in him.

The world of the Byzantine Empire, filled with superstition, wars and royal bloodsheds seems alien. Yet today’s newsfeed is saturated with religious fanaticism, absurd violence, grotesque politics. Is history a repetition of the same power- play with different actors, director and sets? In the end of course nothing ever much changes. Justinian and Zaharias are like the rest of us: elevated and ridiculous paradoxes.