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With its theatrical costumes, make-up and decor - designed by Wilbert van Dorp, who also designed for Peter Greenaway - the English-spoken feature film The Emperor's Wife looks like an costume piece, a fairytale for adults. Inspired by the life of Suraya of Persia and the court of Istanbul in the 1920s, the film tells a story of age-long court traditions. An emperor, whose wife is unable to bear him an heir, instructs his chamberlain to find a suitable candidate for giving birth to his son. From the mountains, the steward gets a beautiful young virgin, Sabah, gorgeous but wild as a cat. Sabah first needs to be tamed, so in accordance with an old custom she will be prepared for her role as empress in a secret wing of the palace for a year. The emperor will not see her before the wedding ceremony. While the jealous empress has a suspicion that she will be deposited and the emperor tries to evade the law, the chamberlain, falls in love with Sabah. A serious problem, since every man who enters her room will be executed.

Credits

Production Design
Set geluid
Production company
Staccato Films
Fu Works Productions
Distributor NL
A-Film Distribution

Title: The Emperor's Wife
Year: 2003
Duration : 1 hour, 33 minutes
Category: Feature film
Edition: NFF 2003

NFF Archive

You are now in the NFF Archive. The archive contains contains information on film, TV and interactive productions that were screened at past festival editions. The NFF does not dispose of this material. For this, please contact the producer, distributor or broadcaster. Sometimes, older films can also be found at the Eye Film Museum or the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

Stills

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