EMPEREUR (2023)

Directed by Marion Burger & Ilan J. Cohen

Narrated by Olivia Cooke in English Version

With the voice of Vimala Pons in French version

Produced by Oriane Hurard

An Atlas V (France), Reynard Films (Allemagne), France Télévisions coproduction, Pico

Made by Albyon

EMPEROR is an interactive and narrative experience in virtual reality, which invites the user to travel inside the brain of a father, suffering from aphasia.

It is the story of a man who’s lost his ability to speak, and of the daughter trying to communicate with him. It is the story of a woman, who wasn’t given the chance to know the man behind her father, now obscured by this illness.

As she tries to piece together what remains of his language, she discovers that his relationship to words is connected to his memories. The memories of an entire lifetime… Step by step, clue after clue, we will dive alongside her into the inner world of this man, in an attempt to decipher the story he can no longer tell us. 

In a monochrome aesthetic, close to traditional animation, this personal story is told as a journey with surreal overtones, offering to explore aphasia as a distant country. 

EMPEROR is a poetic experience of the loss of one’s faculties, of the passing of time, and of the bonds which, through it all, remain.

Born in France in 1987, Marion Burger is a production designer on several feature films including Divines by Houda Benyamina (Caméra d’or 2016), Gagarine by Jérémy Trouilh and Fanny Liatard (Cannes 2020) and more recently Mother and Son by Léonor Serraille (Cannes 2022). On this occasion, she has been awarded the Young Film Technician Prize for her work.

Marion Burger is a production designer on several feature films such as Divines by Houda Benyamina (Caméra d’or 2016) and more recently Mother and Son by Léonor Serraille (Cannes 2022) for which she won the Young Film Technician Prize.

Born in France in 1984, Ilan has been working as a first assistant director since 2008 (including Noaz Deshe’s White Shadow, Lodge Kerrigan’s Rebecca H., and Bertrand Bonello’s Sarah Winchester) while pursuing his own screenwriting and directing music videos (Rone, Gaspar Claus).

Ilan J. Cohen has been working as a first assistant director since 2008 while pursuing his own screenwriting and directing music videos (Rone, Gaspar Claus).

With the support of CNC, FFF Bayern, Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, MEDIA Creative Europe, Medienboard Berlin-randeburg, Bourse Beaumarchais Orange XR, Région Sud, Procirep-Angoa, Fondation Audiens Générations, Astrea