HOLLYWOOD, CA
Controversial film-maker Quentin Tarantino is in southern Manitoba this week scouting locations for his newest blockbuster Dueck Unchained.
“I’ve always been fascinated by Mennonites,” said Tarantino. “One of the extras on Kill Bill Volume 2 was from Friedensfeld and he put in a heck of a performance as dead body number three.”
Tarantino is known for his gory films that take ample liberties with historical fact and he wants to transport this formula to the world of Mennonites.
“I’ve made films about slaves taking revenge on slave-owners, and Jews getting back at the Nazis, so this time I want to show the Mennonites getting back at the Canadian government for making them go to public school and learn English in the 1920s. What an injustice.”
The film tells the tale of Waldemar Dueck, a young sunflower farmer from the Hochstad area who just “won’t take this ‘learning the language of your country’ stuff lying down.”
“The whole thing will be in Plautdietsch with English subtitles,” Tarantino said. “The only thing I’m concerned about is whether a local supplier can get me enough fake blood.”
An earlier draft of the screenplay really emphasized the Mennonite commitment to non-resistant pacifism, but Tarantino quickly shelved that idea.
“It’s not really important,” he said. “In my films, entertainment comes first. I give the people what they want to see…in this case, Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden’s head on a pike.”
The film is set to begin production in August in the Morden-Winkler area.
