Ballad of a Righteous Merchant | Nice IFF 2018

Directed by
Herbert Golder

Category
Feature Documentary

Synopsis
A fresh and candid glimpse of one of the great masters of cinema at work, by his longtime friend (of more than 25 years) and collaborator (on 10 films) Herbert Golder, BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT chronicles Werner Herzog’s making of the feature film, MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE (co-written by Golder), which was nominated for a GOLDEN LION and for Best Screenplay at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, and which stars Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, and Chloe Sevigny.

MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE was inspired by the true story of an actor who committed in reality the crime he was supposed to enact on stage in a production of an ancient Greek play: he murdered his mother. BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT explores the process through which this true story, for which an ancient myth was the catalyst, is transformed back into a fiction—that is, into a Werner Herzog film.

Run time: 63m