Two extraterrestrial empires find a new venue for their perpetual battle for good and evil: a French fishing village. Here Freddy is born, the Prince of Darkness, who will one day upset the balance and enslave humanity forever. The zeros (lumps of black matter) and the ones (rays of light) have sent their emissaries to Earth to take over the bodies of earthlings and kidnap the chosen infant.
Chapeau: A science fiction parody wins the Jury Prize at the Berlinale! And rightly so, because Bruno Dumont's absurd STAR WARS spoof defies all conventions when it contrasts epic "space opera" with profane provincial everyday life. THE EMPIRE delights with its bizarre characters and astonishes with its creative effects. The space stations in the form of Notre-Dame and Versailles Palace alone are unbeatable.