Elevation Pictures
Within the first 15 minutes of Rumours, the newest off-kilter fantasia from Canadian director Guy Maddin and his collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson, the ensemble of main characters stumble upon a dead body. A bog body, specifically—a preserved human from the Iron Age whose flesh has been mummified by the underground peat while the passing millennia melted their bones away.
Bog bodies are often the remains of tribal leaders, the local archaeologist explains, killed by their subordinates in ritual sacrifice when their leadership proved unsatisfactory. It’s a groaningly obvious dig at the movie’s themes: Rumours takes place at a near-future version of the G7 summit, and its cast are seven of the world’s most powerful heads of state, gathered together to solve an unnamed crisis—or die trying.
The film, which hits theaters in the U.S. Oct. 18, is led by an international cast, each playing fictional presidents and prime ministers of the seven nations of the G7. As Charles de Gaulle once decreed that the leader of a country ought to embody l’esprit de la nation, the characters in Rumours exhibit stereotypes particular to their home country, each more absurd than the last.
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