Manifesto

Manifesto reimagines the artist's installation as a feature length film in which Cate Blanchett embodies a dozen or more personas delivering manifestos from art and politics across time. From a homeless man to a factory supervisor to a corporate CEO, each voice articulates radical ideas borrowed from 19th and 20th century manifestos. The result is a witty, striking audio-visual collage that blends text, image, and performance. Rather than following a single plot, the film assembles ideas into a mosaic that challenges how art and ideology travel. It's a provocative look at the power of words to shape culture and identity. The result is a kaleidoscopic examination of language and imagination that invites viewers to reflect on how art becomes politics.

Directed by Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto stems from his celebrated installation of the same name and was adapted as a feature film in 2017. Cate Blanchett plays thirteen distinct voices across the vignettes, with the camera shifting swiftly between street scenes, studios, and stark interiors. The runtime allows a meditative pace that gives space for the shifting voices to resonate.

In art circles Manifesto has been noted for turning dense political texts into performance cinema, harnessing Blanchett's chameleon talents to spotlight how manifestos shape cultural debates. The film has sparked conversations about the relevance of these texts to today's visual language and to education about art.

Critics note that the film favors performance and concept over linear storytelling, inviting viewers to assemble meaning themselves. The themes move across politics and art, from communism to Dogme, reinterpreted for a contemporary audience. The result is a bold meditation on how manifestos endure in culture.

Box office details are not widely reported for this art driven project. It operates primarily as a gallery style film experience rather than a conventional commercial release, and its reach is largely through festivals and art house circuits.