Every year at Cannes, a few films turn up that feel like they’ve landed from another universe, and this year it’s The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson.
Set in a fictional Middle Eastern-style country in the ’50s, the film centres on Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), a flamboyant industrialist whose empire is crumbling under the weight of political pressure, financial scrutiny, and a string of assassination attempts. After barely surviving a mysterious plane crash, he unexpectedly names his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a nun, as his sole heir. Thrown together by circumstance, the two navigate a chaotic mix of family baggage, global intrigue, and shady business dealings.
Korda’s latest infrastructure project becomes the focal point of the drama, drawing in rival tycoons, foreign operatives, and political extremists, and what ensues is part espionage caper, part personal reckoning, rendered in Anderson’s signature idiosyncratic style. The themes are heavier in this film, playing with legacy, control, redemption, but the tone is still unmistakably his.
Talking of his signature codes, visually, it’s all shadows and half-light with long, slow takes that build a foreboding scene, even in daylight. The picture hums with quiet tension, complete with a creeping sense that something is not quite right. Less about action and more about atmosphere, the viewer embraces what’s implied rather than what’s said, and so, it has drawn comparisons to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and early Tarkovsky. The sound design deserves a mention too, subtle, sometimes barely there, but always just unsettling enough.
“The point of departure was to try to invent something about one of those European magnates from the 1950s, like Onassis or Niárchos.”
The film features an impressive star-studded ensemble cast, joining Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl is Michael Cera as Bjorn Lund, Tom Hanks as Leland, Bryan Cranston as Reagan, Riz Ahmed as Prince Farouk, Scarlett Johansson as Cousin Hilda, Benedict Cumberbatch as Uncle Nubar, Rupert Friend as Excaliber, and Hope Davis as the Mother Superior. Across the board, the performances are sharp, strange, and fully committed, with each actor embracing Anderson’s off-kilter world of stylised absurdity. The film earned a 6.5-minute standing ovation at Cannes, with Threapleton’s performance drawing particular praise from critics.
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