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01 HomelandHistory(OpeningTitles)
02 Family
03 YoungHank
04 Father
05 Innocence
06 VillageFolk
07 TheHomelandisGlorious
08 Curfew
09 Grandpa
10 KilltheCat
11 LikeFather,LikeSon
12 TheTwins
13 TheyGottoYou
14 Asshole
15 DeclarationofWar
16 IstheBallOurs?
17 TheLongWalk
18 WeHaveInformation
19 WannaPlay?
20 It’sGonnaBeOkay
21 TankChase
22 WeFoundIt
23 Pickaxe
24 WhereHaveYouBeen?
25 SwimIfYouHaveTo
26 BrokenHeart
27 MySon,MySon
28 Reunion
29 IWillNeverStop
30 EndCredits
György Dragomán’s novel moved us to tears by page three with its powerful story about a boy’s love for his father and a family’s struggle against repression.
The film itself can be viewed as a science fiction drama that paints a world in which the masses, like Djata and his parents, lead impoverished, rural lives under surveillance whilst the military leadership live luxuriously with exclusive access to worldly progress and technology.
The story’s setting - in a fictional English speaking country we called the Homeland - is rooted in history as much as it is a future projection. We borrow visual elements (wardrobe, props, vehicles, architecture etc.) as well as concepts and values (rationing, closed borders, propaganda, military control) from Communism in Eastern Europe, Cuba, North Korea and the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, as well as a “branding” and “styling” from Nazi Germany, North Korea and ISIS, adding a contemporary twist.
The building of the Homeland required a distinctive score, full of analogue texture. The use of folk elements and strings evokes the green dream that originally underpinned this society before it became a military state. We were inspired by Transylvanian folk music that we discovered on location in Hungary, and wanted to evoke the beauty of the countryside
captured so well by René Richter, the film’s cinematographer. Bruzdowicz’ bold use of a wide array of percussion and occasional brass - as well as the National Anthem “The Homeland is Glorious” - provides military flair, but also communicates the feral and violent underside of the Homeland reflected through a child’s eyes.
The lack of synthetic sounds and the improvisational percussion in the action scenes give the film the disconcerting edge that this story could take place anywhere and at any time, even now. Joanna Bruzdowicz, with her traumatic childhood in post WW2 Poland, was a natural fit as THE WHITE KING’s composer.
The highly melodic tapestry of string pieces for chamber orchestra somehow reinforces the idea that everyday life in a military state is not without its beautiful places, good people and good times. The effect of pieces like “Curfew” is melancholic, but it is also attractive, almost comforting in its wandering line. Bruzdowicz’ choice of harmonies often suggests a conflict or juxtaposition, that despite the absence of Djata’s father, there is a strange question mark, that the path ahead for Djata is not absolute and clear. This is fitting, since in the film we ask questions that have no easy answers.
Alex Helfrecht + Jörg Tittel
THE MUSIC OF THE HOMELAND
television. She wrote four concerti and numerous chamber pieces, as well as over 25 hours of film music.
Her output includes several operas which brought to the stage some of the greatest works of European literature e.g. THE PENAL COLONY after Kafka (1972), THE WOMEN OF TROY after Euripides (1973) and THE GATES OF PARADISE after Jerzy Andrzejewski (1987).
In the film world, Joanna Bruzdowicz is best known for her long-time collaboration with French director Agnès Varda, from Golden Lion winner VAGABOND (SANS TOIT NI LOI) to KUNG FU MASTER, JACQUOT DE NANTES, THE GLEANERS AND I (LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE) and more.
THE WHITE KING is not her first collaboration with her son Jörg Tittel and daughter-in-law Alex Helfrecht. They previously collaborated on works for the stage as well as the acclaimed 2010 short film BATTLE FOR BRITAIN.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER Joanna Bruzdowicz (b. 1943, Warsaw, Poland) comes from a musical family: her father was an architect and cellist, her mother a pianist. Bruzdowicz started her musical career when she began to compose at the age of six. She would later dedicate much of her efforts to promoting music with the Jeunesses Musicales.
She studied at the Warsaw Music High School, at the State Higher School of Music, where she earned her M.A. in 1966. She left the then Soviet controlled Poland in 1968 and traveled to Paris thanks to a scholarship from the French government. She became a student of Nadia Boulanger, Oliver Messiaen and Pierre Schaeffer. While in Paris, she joined the electro acoustic Groupe de Recherches Musicales and wrote her doctoral thesis Mathematics and Logic in Contemporary Music at the Sorbonne.
As a composer she has devoted her attention to opera, symphonic and chamber music, works for children, and music for film and
CREDITS
written and directed by Alex Helfrecht + Jörg Tittelbased on the novel by György Dragománproduced by Philip Munger and Teun Hiltean Oiffy production
composer, conductor and orchestrator Joanna Bruzdowicz
music editor Thomas Huhn at Chimney, Stockholm
music recorded and mixed at Angel Studios, London studio engineer Mat Bartram assistant engineer Chris Parker
Orchestra London Contemporary Orchestra
Violin Galya Bisengalieva Eloisa-Fleur Thom
Viola Robert Ames Zoe Matthews
Cello Brian O’Kane Jonny Byers
Double Bass Roger Linley Elena Hull
Percussion Ric Elsworth Sam Wilson Dan Gresson
Banjo Alastair Putt
Trumpet Simon Cox
additional music editing David Pringle
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Track 7 (“The Homeland is Glorious”)composed by Jörg Tittel
orchestrated by Joanna Bruzdowiczlyrics by Alex Helfrecht
sung by the Junior Defence League (film cast and extras)brass band conductor István Sztán
Track 19 (“Wanna Play?”)contains “Mood Light 3”
composed and performed by Lars Löhn–
contains Symphony II “Katowice” by Joanna Bruzdowicz performed by Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia
conducted by Ruben Silvawith additional editing/mixing by Tim Garratt
Track 23 (“Pickaxe”)contains “Double Bass Concerto”
composed and orchestrated by Joanna Bruzdowicz performed by Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic, Łódz
conducted by Andrzej Markowski
original score published by Silva Screen Music (Publishers) Ltd.
executive producers for Silva Screen Records Ltd. Reynold D’Silva and David Stoner
album mastering Rick Clarkrelease co-ordination Peter Compton
design layout Stuart Ford
album artwork based on THE WHITE KING title sequence by SPOV.tv
“unpredictable, disturbing... an intriguing, sombre work”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
OIFFY PRESENTS “THE WHITE KING”AGYNESS DEYN ROSS PARTRIDGE LORENZO ALLCHURCH FIONA SHAW ÓLAFUR DARRI ÓLAFSSON
GRETA SCACCHI AND JONATHAN PRYCE BASED ON THE BOOK BY GYÖRGY DRAGOMÁN ADAPTED BY ALEX HELFRECHTDIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY RENÉ RICHTER PRODUCED BY PHILIP MUNGER TEUN HILTE PRODUCTION DESIGNER RICHARD BULLOCK
COSTUME DESIGNER SHARON LONG ORIGINAL SCORE BY JOANNA BRUZDOWICZ SOUND DESIGN THOMAS HUHN FILM EDITOR PETER R. ADAMWRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX HELFRECHT + JÖRG TITTEL
@whitekingfilm www.thewhiteking.film
© 2017 Silva Screen Records Ltd. ℗ 2017 Djata Limited / Oiffy LLP under exclusive licence to Silva Screen Records Ltd. SILCD1563 Made in the E.U.
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