The pride of Canada in experimental filmmaking, Guy Maddin, has once again joined forces with his frequent collaborators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson to present a delightfully absurd yet overly ambitious satire that will linger in your memory. 'Rumours' follows a group of hilariously ineffective world leaders who convene at a G7 summit in rural Germany to draft a joint statement on an unspecified global crisis.

Among them are US President Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance), a clear parody of Joe Biden, who inexplicably speaks with a British accent and has a penchant for napping; the charismatic French President Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet); the aspiringly efficient UK PM Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and the brooding Canadian PM Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis), who share a scandalous history; the humble Japanese PM Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira); and Italian PM Antonio Lamorte (Rolando Ravello), who candidly admits to dressing up as Mussolini at a costume party.

Leading this bumbling assembly of policy makers is Chancellor of Germany Hilda Ortmann (Cate Blanchett, embodying Angela Merkel flawlessly), who is particularly enthusiastic about 'bilateral management' in all its forms. They become so engrossed in their empty diplomatic chatter and insipid pontificating that they fail to notice the apocalypse has commenced. Struggling to comprehend the unfolding events, they lose their way in the surrounding forest, where things only get stranger.

Passions resurface, tormented and intense; corpses engage in furious masturbation; and a giant brain makes its appearance. Alicia Vikander also makes an appearance as the Secretary General of the European Commission, speaking a language the others interpret as ancient, but is actually Swedish.

The international cast fully embraces the absurdity, transforming the film from a political soap opera into a Buñuelian farce with strong influences from Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead'. If you're intrigued by this description, you'll thoroughly enjoy this feverish satire and its numerous oddities. 'Rumours' hits its stride early, with laughs starting from the opening credits, which include a thank you to the G7 leaders for their 'support and consultation'.

However, it tends to lose momentum in the second half. The leaders' futile adventure, resulting in a lot of hot air and no progress, is the intended message, though its impact may vary. The introduction of an AI chatbot in the third act feels somewhat forced, as if Maddin and co. were indulging in their own eccentricity a bit too much. It's difficult to ignore that the film could have been significantly stronger as a short, or at least trimmed by 20 minutes from its nearly 2-hour runtime.

Nonetheless, Maddin and the Johnsons' distinctive brand of absurdism prevails, serving as a fitting reminder that leaders who deceive people into believing they are indispensable through empty psychobabble and clichéd insights will lead the world to a swift and pitiful end. When Chancellor Hilda discovers the G7 goodie bags containing suicide pills ('They hand them out at all the summits!'), one can't help but wish such a practice existed in reality.

Alas, it doesn't, and in short, our fate may be sealed. But if our final moments are crafted by Maddin and the Johnsons, at least we're in for a laugh. 'Rumours' premiered at Cannes earlier this year and begins its European rollout in the UK and Ireland next week.

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