After surviving the long involuntary journey across the Atlantic, an African boy is sold to a European countess who turns him into the object of an educational experiment. Angelo is named and baptized shortly after his arrival on European soil. He is told that the evil he has experienced is behind him and that from now on he will live like a prince. Carefully groomed, educated, and taught courtly manners, Angelo is brought up with all the privileges of the wealthy. He is put on display, entertaining the aristocracy in pantomimes and plays. But as Angelo matures, he displays a streak of resistance.
“Angelo for me turns out to be a story about limitation and the desire of 'the other' for embourgeoisement and dissolution into mass and standard. A tale about getting tired of being different. A discourse about acceptance and tolerance. As for me the story of the black skin is a mere vehicle. Because being different is in all of us. That is what I want to tell a story about. That is where I find myself." (Markus Schleinzer)
Markus Schleinzer
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1971. From 1994 to 2010 he worked as a casting director on about seventy feature films, including films by Jessica Hausner, Ulrich Seidl and Michael Haneke. In 2008, working on Haneke’s The White Ribbon, he was given the chance to train child-actors. He then decided to try his own luck as a filmmaker. Michael, his provocative directorial feature debut, received numerous awards at festivals around the globe. Angelo is his second feature film.