"The Phoenician Scheme" Wes Anderson's silent prayer to walk together in heaven

Synopsis of "The Phoenician Scheme"

The story is set in the 1950s, in the modern-day great independent nation of Phoenicia. Zsa Zsa Corda, a billionaire who survived six assassination attempts, aims to realize the "Phoenicia Project," a massive project to develop three land and sea infrastructures across Phoenicia. However, due to a certain obstruction, the deficit grows, the project falls into financial difficulties, and the plan is threatened. Zsa Zsa appoints his only daughter, Liesl, a novice nun who lives far away, as his successor and sets out on a journey with her. His goals are to raise funds, move the project forward, and uncover the truth behind Liesl's mother's death. Will the project succeed? Who killed Liesl's mother? And can father and daughter become a "real family"?

Index

• Soul storage and destruction
• "Agreement" to become father and daughter
• Lord, Joy of Man's Desiring

Soul storage and destruction

Wes Anderson's 12th The Phoenician Scheme(2025), is a return to his earlier work, which focused on family. Moving away from the complex structures of The The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021) and Asteroid City (2023), the story uncharacteristically moves in a linear direction. Perhaps due to the absence of Robert D. Yeaman, cinematographer on all of his previous live-action feature films, the aesthetic, technical, and decorative aspects, which had previously bordered on the avant-garde, are significantly subdued compared to his previous two films. The film's visuals are more primitive, almost refreshing. This is evident from the brutal opening scene, in which the plane carrying protagonist Zsa Zsa Corda (Benicio del Toro) is attacked and the upper half of a man, presumably a subordinate, is blown away by the blast, almost like a declaration. Yet this is a new work by Wes Anderson, the "maestro of modern cinema." It cannot end as a simple return to basics. The personal concerns of Wes Anderson, the father of an only daughter in real life, permeate the film strongly throughout. A quiet prayer born at the end of chaos. A small spark of life that blossoms at the end of a breakup. What can we adults leave behind for our children? Wes Anderson ponders the world after his own death.

"The Phoenician Scheme" © 2025 TPS Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Going to see a new Wes Anderson film is like taking part in a festival-like event. The audience is participating in Anderson's "plan." But what is the "plan" that is incorporated into the title of this film? Since his debut feature film, "Motel ," (1996), "plan" in Wes Anderson's films has been a haphazard journey that negates the meaning of the word. It signifies a state of control loss for characters who live their lives as control freaks. In fact, Wes Anderson's films themselves beautifully depict the cracks that form in the elaborately crafted works of art. In a sense, they are truly "uneconomical." Yet at the same time, they are a playful and refreshing provocation to a world where rationality takes precedence. Just like the actions of Zsa Zsa, the protagonist of this film! Wes Anderson has remained committed throughout his career to the theme of "glory fades (and therefore is noble)."

Zsa Zsa, the billionaire who simultaneously causes world peace and conflict, is a control freak. After a sixth assassination attempt that has left him on the brink of death, Zsa Zsa sets out to do what he left undone in life. His "plan" includes making his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), his successor. For Zsa Zsa, the "plan" is about his daughter above all else, and the world he is no longer in, and it concerns the preservation and destruction of souls. However, the important thing here is that his daughter may not "agree" with her father's wishes. Liesl doesn't trust her father!

"Agreement" to become father and daughter