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How ‘Childhood of a Leader’ Shows Us the Making of a Fascist

Director Brady Corbet explains why he wanted to make a movie about what it would take to transform a young child into an evil dictator.

For the latest episode ofVICE Talks Film, we sit down with filmmaker Brady Corbet to talk about his dark, chilling, and incredibly ambitious directorial debut,Childhood of a Leader. The film—which earned him awards for best director and best debut feature at the 2015 Venice Film Festival—is set in the shadow of WWI and chronicles the childhood of a nine-year-old boy through a set of increasingly intense tantrums, painting an ominous portrait of the formation of a fascist.

Corbet discusses the film's thunderous score composed by Scott Walker, how being a child actor impacted his directorial approach, and how winning at the Venice Film Festival transformed his life.