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Minotaur Rex
Minotaur Rex (in Development)
NINA MENKES
The mythological Minotaur inspires the creation of Nina Menkes' Minotaur Rex: a thriller-monster genre movie hybrid.
This half man/half beast, who lived in the center of a dark maze, exerted a destructive force on the surrounding world, ceaselessly killing and devouring innocent young men and women. In the original myth, it is a young woman's — Ariadne’s — love and her golden thread which leads Theseus safely out of the maze after he manages to slay the Minotaur.
Nina Menkes' version of the Minotaur myth is a contemporary tale that features a modern Palestinian man in the hero’s role of Theseus. The story is set now, in today's Old City of Jerusalem, using narrow streets of the biblical city as a living labyrinth still resonant with the blood of all creatures past and present.
Although the film’s political power lives in its characters' personal conflicts, the ancient Greek myth shifts the focus onto the deeper, archetypal meaning of the story: we each need to face and heal our wounds, grievances, and rage. Every being in every society needs to confront mankind's "Inner Minotaur" — which is that force of violent darkness which blocks the flow of love and compassion in our lives and relationships.
Stylistically, Minotaur Rex will combine dream-like, surreal hallucinations with a brutal, quasi-documentary shooting style to create a unique exploration of total crisis in modern-day Jerusalem.
Sculpture by Emil Alzamora, courtesy of Emil Alzamora
About Nina Menkes
Considered a cinematic pioneer and one of America’s foremost independent filmmakers, Nina Menkes has shown widely in major international film festivals including the Berlinale, Cannes, Rotterdam, Locarno, Toronto, La Cinematheque Francaise, the British Film Institute, Whitney Museum of American Art, MOMA in New York and the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (LACMA). Her most recent documentary feature Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (2023) is her fourth feature to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Her films have often been met with hostility, as she confronts and expresses violence in an unusual way, creating and following her own rules. Menkes has referred to herself as a witch, and Dennis Lim, writing in The New York Times called her a “Cinematic Sorceress”.
Nina Menkes is one of the most daring, visionary directors in the world today— though terribly under-produced. Eos World Fund aims to rectify this; we are proud that Nina’s provocative Minotaur Rex will be the first recipient participating in the Eos World Fund. Ms. Menkes represents the kind of filmmaking that combines artistic and cinematic innovation with a deep artistic soul and social conscience.
