The film is dedicated to the journey of a 26-year-old artist destined to become famous, Constantin Brâncuși, who travels across Europe. He leaves Romania, where he was born and began studying fine arts, to go to Paris, where he wishes to further his training. This journey is a historical fact, covering more than 2,500 kilometers on foot across Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and lasting 18 months. However, the details of this adventure remain unknown. Peter Greenaway has turned it into a cinematic fiction, imagining adventures that are at times comic, at times violent, sometimes sexual and sometimes romantic. The reconstructed pilgrimage is also marked by the creation of sculptures made from materials found along the way.
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Peter Greenaway is a British filmmaker, visual artist, and writer, internationally renowned for his highly stylized, intellectually rigorous cinema that blends film, painting, architecture, literature, and opera. Trained as a painter, he emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s as one of the most distinctive voices in European art cinema.
He achieved major international recognition with films such as The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), A Zed & Two Noughts (1985), The Belly of an Architect (1987), and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), which became his most famous and controversial work. His films are known for their formal precision, elaborate visual compositions, and recurring themes of power, death, sexuality, and art history.
Greenaway’s work has been widely celebrated at major international festivals. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover received Best Artistic Contribution at the Cannes Film Festival, and many of his films have been selected and awarded at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. In recognition of his contribution to the arts, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Overall, Peter Greenaway is regarded as one of the most influential and provocative auteurs in contemporary cinema, pushing the boundaries between cinema and the visual arts.
