trip to Corsica with Julien Colonna, director of “Kingdom”

Reportage Director Julien Colonna presented his first film on the Isle of Beauty, “The Kingdom”, a very personal thriller about a Corsican godfather and his daughter. We accompanied him.

It is opposite Propriano, where the scrubland forms the end of the gulf, that Julien Colonna grew up, swam in the course of the Taravo, kissed a lover for the first time. “I shot all the scenes of “Kingdom” in this Valinco valley, except for the urban shots in Ajaccio”says the director. The fate of his first feature film, presented at the last Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, is being played out in mid-October on the Isle of Beauty. In forty-eight hours flat, five preview screenings, discussions with the public and kilometers to swallow from north to south to launch word of mouth, so precious on the day of the theatrical release. This tour is off to a good start. “An audience under the spell”, a titled “Corsica Morning” the day after the session in Bastia. “But maybe here, in Propriano, there won’t be any questions…”, a hint of excitement arises in the cool attitude by Julien Colonna. This kingdom, left at the age of 12 for Paris, but never without returns, conceals his family history.

Before lunch in the port, he made a detour to this stronghold to kiss his mother. His father, Jean-Jérôme Colonna, known as “Jean-Jé”, died at the age of 67 in an accident. After hitting a parapet, his car crashed below a bridge eighteen years ago.

A parliamentary report designated him, in 1998, as the last Corsican godfather. Legend has it that, in his youth, he killed the assassins of his own father, named Jac…