The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Wes Anderson’s latest film, the Phoenician Scheme, is as visually precise and as deadpan quirky as always, with the minimal style of portraying characters in the new area since his film, French Dispatch.

The Phoenician Scheme is about the late life of industrial tycoon Zsa-Zsa Korda, who survived several assassination attempts and tried to convince his novice daughter, Sister Liesl, to inherit his business plan, named “the Phoenician Scheme.” Historically, the Phoenicians are referred to as a group of people who lived primarily in the region of Lebanon and Syria and spread through the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea around the Iron Age. Phoenician traders once dominated the Mediterranean and were rivalry with the Greeks contending for colonies. In the film, a stylish map of Phoenicia functions as title cards to showcase different chapters of Korda’s journey. Where this region is located remains undisclosed. 

With the tropical and desert landscape, the film seems to paint an exotic world with references of the Lebanon-Syria region. This story of Korda is based on an Ottoman-born (nowadays Istanbul) Armenian oil magnate, Calouste Gulbenkian, who is one of the first businessmen facilitating the oil trade between the Middle East and Europe. The cylindrical red fez hat, which was popularized during the Ottoman Empire, was worn by nightclub owner Marseille Bob. Right at the beginning of Korda’s journey to fix his plan, a troop dressed in Tuareg (from North Africa) style clothing appeared as a sign of danger. At the last stop of the journey, an Art Deco-style hotel with ancient Egyptian decor is the main stage of the final meeting and Korda’s confrontation with his brother. With Pakistani-descent British actor Riz Ahmed playing a prince in Phoenicia, all the main characters were played by European and American actors who are not of Middle Eastern descent.