In the Italian village of Vejano, a group of elderly hunters meet over a meal, exchanging stories and songs. At the centre of their tales is Luciano, a drunk outsider who is ostracised from the community when a rash moment results in fatal consequences. Landing on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, Luciano seeks mythical treasure, aided and hindered by a group of treacherous gold diggers.

The Tale of King Crab both accounts for and reimagines a historical epic of lost love and lost treasure. As with all folk tales, Luciano’s life has been passed on for others to continue, to be retold and reshaped. Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis draw on multiple experiences of Italian immigrants to Argentina, transforming Luciano into a mythological migrant hero. The Tale of King Crab is a modern-realist picaresque novel that artfully wraps reality and fabulation into an experimental cinematic language that daringly appropriates new frontiers of storytelling.

 

This screening is a UK premiere and is followed by a Q&A with director Matteo Zoppis, hosted by the ICA Head of Cinema Nico Marzano, with a closing night party from Radio alHara resident DJs in the Bar.

Also on Saturday:

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