Göteborg Film Festival

January 28 at 8pm 

EUPHORIA is a tour de force through the history of capitalism and human greed. A dystopian New York populated by surreal characters and animals, partly filmed in Kyiv just days before the Russian invasion, serves as the backdrop for a hypnotizing trip deep into the complexity of human nature at its best and worst. Giancarlo Esposito pays tribute to his role as YoYo in Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth behind the wheel of a New York cab. Cate Blanchett is also back, lending her voice to a cynical tiger looting a supermarket. The film explores why capitalism still seems to have no alternative today and why it remains so seductive and irresistible, even for those who are aware of its destructive nature. The script is based on texts by famous economists, writers, philosophers and poets, which are re-written into a stream of thought through 2,000 years of history, weaving together ideas from Sophocles, Plato and Karl Marx, to Snoop Dogg, Cardi B and Angela Davis. The music for the film was written by Samy Moussa and Cassie Kinoshi and performed by 150 singers of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and five acclaimed jazz drummers – Terri Lyne Carrington, Peter Erskine, Antonio Sanchez, Eric Harland and Yissy García. In light of the radical political and social changes in the US and elsewhere, which question the basic principles of our democracies, the subject of the film has become increasingly relevant. 

 

The museum version was premiered in 2022 at the Ruhrtriennale / Zeche Zollverein. It continued travelling to Park Avenue Armory in New York, to the Melbourne Festival RISING, the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte. In fall 2026 it will be shown at MUAC in Mexcico City.

 

Commissioned and produced by Park Avenue Armory

Co-Commissioned by Holland Festival, Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts, and RISING Melbourne in Association with Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte

Additional funding provided by Kunststiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg    

 

With Giancarlo Esposito, Jeff Wood, Tim Williams, Erik Hansen, Jeff Burrell, Robert Bronzi, Virginia Newcomb, Kate Strong, Ayesha Jordan, Dora Zygouri, Rocio Rodriguez-Inniss, Esther Odumade, Asa Ali, Tia Murrell, Luis Rosefeldt

and Cate Blanchett (voice of tiger)

 

Executive Producer: Wassili Zygouris

Director of Photography: Christoph Krauss

Editor: Bobby Good

Set Design: Nadja Götze

Music: Samy Moussa

Costume Design: Daniela Backes & Bina Daigeler

Hair & Makeup: Julia Böhm, Katharina Rebecca Thieme

Sound Design: Thomas Appel

Re-recording: Tschangis Chahrokh

Postproduction Supervisor: Maximilian Link

Additional Music: Cassie Kinoshi

Choreography: Richard Siegal

Dramaturgy: Tobias Staab

Casting: Cassandra Han

Service Production Berlin: Syrreal Entertainment

Service Production Kyiv: Family Production

Service Production Sofia: Solent Film

Service Production New York: See The Tree Production