Portrait of the Queen, an event-documentary that looks at the moving, enthralling and controversial
70-year reign of late Queen Elizabeth II through the eyes of the world’s best photographers, will
release to select Australian cinemas for a limited time on March 18.
The film, an original and intimate portrait that goes far beyond the dictates of standard conventional
biographies, interweaves the story of the Queen’s life with the equally fascinating lives of the
extraordinary photographers who accompanied – and often created – the image of British monarchy
itself. Those who, through their work, established, conveyed, and spread the image of Her Majesty.
A special, careful look of the thousands upon thousands of images that have portrayed her, means
that we can perhaps find a new way to approach a Queen we feel we have always known, but who
has always seemed equally out-of-reach. Each portrait presented in this film, each conversation with
the photographers involved in the project, all the accounts of experiences shared by actresses,
designers, and British subjects, fit carefully and intricately into the screenplay like pieces of a mosaic
that capture some of the multifaceted aspects of the Queen's image, all different but connected, all
equally powerful and significant.
Directed by award-winning photographer Fabrizio Ferri, Portrait of the Queen is based on the book,
Elisabetta II: Ritratto di Regina by Paola Calvett. The documentary features legendary British actor
Charles Dance (The Crown, Game of Thrones), with contributions from Emma Blau, Pierpaolo
Piccioli, Isabella Rossellini, Susan Sarandon and the Queen’s photographers Brian Aris, Jason Bell,
Julian Calder, Chris Levine, David Montgomery, John Swannell.
