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Ivo van Hove's direction of Les Damnés had its world premiere as the opening performance of the Festival d'Avignon. This theatrical adaptation, based on a film script by Italian film director Luchino Visconti, shows how a family of rich German industrialists is fatally corrupted by its collaboration with the Nazi party that has come to power. Family patriarch Baron Joachim resists and is liquidated. The struggle for the succession leads to an escalation of intrigues and manipulations, betrayal and murder.
Direction
Van Hove turns family drama into political horror.
Production
Festival d'Avignon opening—ambition dripping from every frame.
Acting
Heebink's Sophie: ice queen with a furnace inside.
Director
Ivo van Hove
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