The King of Palma
80 minutes, DVcam, 16:9
The king of Palma seems like an aging film star when he walks his best friend Flocky, a little white dog, through the old part of town in a slightly bent position and with a cigarette in his mouth. Whenever the 64-year old man stops, his body teeters like a metronome. When he's excited or happy, he rubs his hands. His black hair is short and accurately parted. When he talks to you, his kind blue eyes look at you with curiosity and a slightly penetrating look in his eyes:
My name is Mister Bruno Regnault de Maulmin. I live in this street. And I am, maybe I am, how could I say, maybe I am the king of Palma. That could be said: The king of Palma. I don't know if everybody knows. I think that I am the king of Palma, because I am sitting in the café and I go for a walk with my dog. But I am not like the King of Spain. I am the king of Palma, because I behave respectably.
Every day the Frenchman is roaming his kingdom in the heart of Palma de Mallorca. His quarter has the charm of a small Italian town: sandstone-coulored walls
are lining narrow, winding streets and alleys, sturdy houses with small doors stand next to venerable palaces and convents. This is his outside world.
Bruno's inner world is the world of a twelve year old, one that he perceives in a very personal way - he is schizophrenic. What matters to him are the small things and encounters of his every day life: when God talks to him, when he's helpless because his dog Flocky wouldn't accept his lead, when he's wondering why the police had not arrested him on his walk, or when his 10-year old niece puts him into fancy dresses, but also when a forgotten jar of mayonnaise has run out in his pocket.
Until 1991 Bruno lived in Paris by himself. He was all on his own, did not find his way in daily life and would spend money until he had nothing left. In order to avoid sending him to a home for the handicapped, his French-Majorcan family decided to take him in. With much love and understanding they allow him to spend a normal life. Bruno is very vital and optimistic. He often discovers new things in his life and is amazed at them. He hates maliciousness, violence, injustice and immoral behaviour.
He seems like the perfect citizen, if it were not for his illness with its changing moods and the fact that even small things can disconcert him.
The film accompanies Bruno's daily life which is not always easy and immerses deeper and deeper into it. But this life gets out of control when all of a sudden his best friend Flocky disappears.