The Mundo King (2019) - full transcript

(film flickering)

(birds chirping)

(cat meowing)

(cat meowing)

You hungry?

I give you something.

I give you some fish or some cheese.

(cat meowing)

No?

(cat meowing)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.



(match striking)

You know, you cannot see the
aliens, but you can smell them.

They're smelling sulfur, sulfur, you know.

Gas. You smell it quick.

(metallic banging)

(soft music)

This was my idea to make a castle,

not to rule Earth in political details.

The castle is just for cosmic reign.

All the foundation is done.

So even if I die, somebody
can finish it with my plans.

See?

My painting.

[Interviewer] How long have
you been working on that?



Two days.

Here, look at this.

Thermo Nuclear.

RRS PSS plutonium starships.

Here is to become a new tower.

I have drawings of that,

and I will put some drawings
in my book to get the money.

Without money, it's difficult, you know.

Money is welcome.

Dollars welcome, Euro, whatever, Yen.

All kind of currency is welcome.

Come on.

(chuckling)

Here you can see the,

the atomic explosions over the castle.

Here's a spaceship that's going,

but it was no noise.

They're coming in a fireball.

Here's the sun injections.

This is not normal.

Here's a project when the
castle is finished, you know?

I call that heavenly body opener.

You can open, you can open a small planet.

Classical UFO.

The pressure of the gas makes the UFO fly.

It's easy.

One UFO crashed in Roswell.

UFO people.

This is a video, it moves, goes.

It moves, this one.

Rocket airplane, go, and
(imitates vehicle zooming)

And you go down.

10 minutes you are in Tokyo.

[Interviewer] 10 minutes?

In 10 minutes you are in
Tokyo with that, you know.

It's subject to interpretation.

If the Rolf show if
it's just an act or not.

Sometimes I don't know.

But most of the times I think it's an act,

although he would dispute that.

Here, you cannot talk to Dominicans

about the mother cosmos and
radiant hovering entities.

They say, "What?"

They're running to the Pope, you know.

The Pope?

(chuckling)

The Pope don't know nothing about this.

People are surprised.

When I had visitors, they
took photos of the banners,

they took photos and they
are, they are very silent.

Taking the photos, and
when I start to talk, they,

(grunting)

Took the photos and thank you, sir,

and they're running away.

Something, something secret, you know?

I don't think this is the
ultimate performance art piece

that's lasted 25 years, and
that he's snickering about

and he's gonna come out
in an art show in Berlin

and say like, "This was my piece,

it lasted 20 years in Dominican Republic."

He believes he's seen them
or at least smelled them.

(Josephina speaking in foreign language)

(Vincente speaking in foreign language)

(Josephina speaking in foreign language)

When I asked him, "Why do you do that?"

And he would like smirk and say,

"Yeah, because people like."

What he thinks about is spaceships,

and maybe he was taken by aliens.

(soft music)

(sighing)

He likes publicity, but maybe
it's true, I don't know.

Nobody know.

I also think we are not alone in space.

This was my first idea when I saw here

the extraterrestrial atomic space ships,

and they have been always here.

One model, the rocket model,

and the rocket modern seems very modern.

Carbine. Revolver carbine.

And I put that on the roof.

And normally after that, one
month later, the sky was full

with extraterrestrial
spaceships, curious people.

The space rocket, the
form of this space rocket

is still actual.

It can go very, very, very fast.

And it goes push for push, push by push.

One, the next, revolver, turning round.

It's the greatest invention, this system.

And the aliens, they know it.

They know it well.

For this, they came always here.

(laughing)

My name is Rolf Schulz.

I was born during the
Second World War in Poland.

I studied civil engineering in Hamburg,

and when I was 40 years old,

I started to be around
artists and engineers.

Music, paintings, sculptures,
technics, all this.

And now, I try to be the greatest engineer

for atomic spaceships.

(chuckling)

Sounds a little bit crazy.

(soft guitar music)

My father was a realist,

and my mother was a
little bit more a dreamer.

I can put both powers together

and I can do something in realism

and something in dreaming.

He was always artistically interested.

But his father was a civil engineer,

and that basically led to his career,

so his father told him "You
have to study civil engineering,

or I don't know, you
won't be my son anymore."

First, he became a bricklayer,

and then he studied at the
university civil engineering,

then he build supermarkets and streets,

and after 10 years of employment,
he had his own company.

He explained to me how he
made his first million.

He said to me how you have to be blunt,

you have to be straightforward,
you have to be driven.

That was really his thing at that time,

he wanted to be a big,
successful businessman,

and he was always quite
a daring businessman,

and sometimes a little bit arrogant.

The guy was like "Fuck you,
bank, fuck you, establishment."

Very much goal driven, but
that somehow came to an end

I think when he realized
that his profession

had a boring side as well, or a dire side.

I thought I had to change my life,

I had to do something more important

than to build houses.

He just didn't care anymore.

This was about the time that Rolf Schulz

I think wanted to do something
different with his life.

My name is Joachim Spruch

and I was the assistant from Rolf Schulz,

way back 30 years ago in Hamburg.

The canvas existed that he had to come up

with some ideas to do something
with his life, I believe.

He saw himself in his nice house
now, with a beautiful wife.

He had a steady job,
he had a steady income.

And I think he was probably saying,

"What am I going to do now?"

He decided he wanted to be an artist.

I want to put all my heart, my money,

everything into a piece of art for myself

and for people to share.

I hereby leave all my belongings behind,

and I become like a monk for the art.

And that's how it all started.

(upbeat rock music)

He got his own art gallery,
in the center of Hamburg,

right smack in the park with no ceiling.

He started buying large canvasses.

Huge paintings.

He also purchased large
amounts of phosphor.

When you mix phosphor into
paint and you apply blacklight,

you have glowing picture.

It's supposed to be like a volcanic lava

coming through the picture.

(thunder booming)

Boom!

(imitating explosion)

Boom!

Without end.

It was noisy.

(soft music)

I did many in Germany.

Like 24 different happenings.

It was going through Berlin.

I wounded the tree in the city of Berlin,

and putting blood color, you know?

And all the streets of
Berlin were closed by police.

(imitating cars whooshing)

Hundred police cars.

Nothing short of being
almost a Rolling Stones show,

I mean, this was enormous.

Going to the Checkpoint Charlie,

I stop, I make some preach,
like a spell, you know.

Theater performances.

Light shows, fire, sounds, music.

On rivers, in the forest.

In the industrial halls, you know.

24 different happenings.

(man screaming)

I made a record with Joachim Spruch.

(upbeat rock music)

(man screaming)

I used many, many sounds.

We had some musicians playing.

Rock echo guitars.

Some electric funky guitars.

Synthesizer sounds.

Some Van Halen played backwards.

There was some voices of whales.

Again, he never cheaped out on music.

This was done in one of
the old bunkers we had.

I gave him a half bottle of
whiskey and the microphone.

You know, it's part of
thus whole performance art.

And he took the drink
and started to scream.

(screaming)

(screaming)

Really like, forest dying.

And he accomplished that.

(drum beating)

(man screaming)

In Hamburg, really,
really, really great.

With paintings and sounds,
and in the middle of the city,

a big sculpture you can go
in with sounds and pictures.

(soft music)

Great.

Great person, great
thinkings, great brain,

but not as a father.

I remember the
evenings, they were scary.

They were always active,
they were these gang of guys.

My mother was fighting against
that, she was angry with them

and they would come with their
beers, clunking of the beers.

Oh yeah, they never stopped.

He didn't care for his children,

or he didn't know how to
show it, I don't know what.

My daddy was not there.

I don't know what to say about it,

but it's no good feeling
for a four years old boy.

The major casualty
of Rolf's artistic life

is that the relationship with his son

who he loves very much
broke down completely.

His father can be very
complex and complicated.

It's a unique view on the
person that's like a mirror.

For my brother, it's very difficult.

They haven't seen each other for 14 years.

And I hope that they can reconnect

before my dad ever passes away

to alien space or wherever he goes.

He was in his 50s,
and maybe, I don't know,

what you call a midlife crisis.

(laughing)

His art project kind
of made some headlines

and kind of were regarded as interesting

but he never found a home
as an artist in Germany.

He was probably just thinking or thought,

now that I don't have a
responsibility for anybody anymore,

I do my own thing.

(bright music)

He has a very big hatred
for the authorities.

That's also why he ended
up in German prison.

My father went to jail for three things.

He sold a jazz record collection

by his best friend without his permission.

That was one part.

And I think at the end of his company

had half a million dollars debt

which he couldn't pay, obviously.

That was a bit bad.

And the last thing was that
he called a civil servant

with whom he had a big hatred a Nazi,

various times in writing
and it was unproven,

so it was kind of embarrassing.

I was like shell shocked,
my dad is in prison,

it's like, ah, my dad is not a criminal,

he's just nuts, but that's okay.

I think my dad was in
jail for three months.

He told me that story as
well, how he was in jail,

and then suddenly a
guy knocked on his door

and said "We have an amnesty
for you, just sign it."

And then the next day or
two days later he was gone.

This is a very sad part of the story.

(intense music)

In Germany, I was really in the end.

This is November 27, 2001.

So what he did is he bought a container,

and then stored the container itself

on somebody's property here.

Well, somebody took over this property

and didn't know what to do with this.

So this guy took actually
all the art out and cut it

and broke it up and
threw it in the garbage.

So there is your answer
of where the art is now.

The people took all my properties,

they destroyed a lot of art in Germany.

It was my pieces.

So he must, at some point
started off from scratch again,

and then again, I don't
know where this bridge is

that got him thinking into the aliens,

into that whole bit he's into now.

Just lost, and you go,
go to Dominican Republic.

Yeah.

(waves crashing)

(soft music)

(dogs barking)

(upbeat music)

(match striking)

This exhibition, come here.

This painting, and this painting.

This, this, and this.

Here, this, this, and what else,

and this, and this,

and this.

Look.

This painting.

This, this, and this.

I was doing after the visit of the aliens,

I did it after, you know?

When I sleep, I'm most peaceful,

and when I dream, I awake,
I try to recognize my dreams

and make a small analysis
of the dreams, you know.

Sometimes I see some construction,

sacred buildings high in the mountains,

that of gold with rays
around and really nice forms,

and I'm running around, I see that,

and I say, "Who did that?"

You know?

Then in the morning I take my pencil,

and sometimes I make some
drawings of my dreams.

Mundo King Castle's a
fortress for his soul, really.

Think it's a monument for himself,

and at the moment it protects him

and guides him through life and
gives him a lot of pleasure.

He's been so happy, never seen him happier

than this, these last four or five years.

I remember that it wasn't a
castle, it was just a house.

It's not that he had a
huge budget at first,

it was always like step by step.

He basically started with two floors

and then he built the floors up

and now it has seven stories.

The verticality of
it as you approach it,

it's just massive.

And when you think about it,

in the North coast of Dominican Republic,

everything's horizontal, I mean the ocean,

the fact that it's on top of the hill

and you're coming from beneath,

kind of coming up to
Hearst Castle or something.

(soft music)

First time I went to Mundo King,

I was taken there by a friend of mine

who thought I'd be interested in something

kind of out of the ordinary,
off the beaten path,

and something that is completely different

than in Dominican Republic or
anywhere else for that matter.

Probably 1000 artwork.

Sculptures out of stone,
out of mahogany, paintings.

It's eclectic, I mean, there's
stuff that is pure pop art,

you see like references
to twisted sister or CNN.

Three thrones, two catacombs.

A big fire pit out of iron.

[Norm] Massive multi ton sculptures.

You know that the door is always open,

that's his thing.

This big door, even at
night, it's never locked,

so anybody could always come in.

The first time when people see the castle,

they're obviously like,
"I don't believe this",

there's this kind of disbelief.

Some people are scared,

and other people just want to
have the aesthetic pleasure.

And then he comes out,
with hand and a cigarette

and the people say "You did this?"

And he's "Ah, yah, yah, yah, yah."

(chuckling)

And then they are like "Wow!"

The meta of the castle

makes the invisible
content more believable.

This is a good trick to
get the people by artworks.

Heavy, good, nice to look.

The content after this is the spirit.

It gives you inspiration.

It is by far people's
most memorable experience

in the Dominican Republic.

The castle can stand for a long time

if I can fix it with all good materials,

and we have a lot to
do up there, you know,

and I'm working here now,

and I make the thing in concrete
so it can stand long time.

And nothing is forever.

Maybe you can stand if
it's good, good in concrete

and things like this can
stand for a long time,

like a memory monument too.

Historic memory, I want to do.

I can reach that

[Mirja] I think Rolf left Germany

in search of the paradise,

like in, I don't know,
the heart of darkness.

He just wanted to be in a country
or in a place in the world

where you had the more possibilities

that you don't really do
in a first world country.

He was really searching
for his own paradise

where he could be the king.

I have no light here, you know,

I didn't like electricity.

I can read my books only
when the sunshine comes.

So I wake up early in
the morning, six o'clock,

and I buy some material for the workers.

He's realized that material possessions

are not vital to his survival.

It has toilets, but obviously,
they cannot be really used

because he hasn't got running water,

he has a well at the bottom of the castle.

The major thing is he
doesn't have electricity,

so it's a castle without electricity.

The cat always comes.

I'm not against technical things

like a camera or a TV or computer,

but this is not the main
point in the life, you know.

Some people are thinking
when I get my TV and my car

and my nice, nice luxury
apartment, I'm satisfied.

This is King Rolf rules plentiful,

lord of time and space,
some abstract scripts.

The reign of the mighty beyond.

What do we think?

Sounds good.

(chuckling)

The name, I think I told
you how it came about.

(upbeat music)

Down at the beach, there's a hut

that is called Mofongo King,

you know, the Porto Rican dish, mofongo,

that's like in a wooden kind of a pan.

My dad walked past it for the first time

and he realized, oh, that's a cool name,

I'm gonna steal that, I'm
gonna call it Mundo King.

I've been there a couple
of times and I think

that what he's doing there
is extremely interesting,

and I think that his beliefs
are extremely interesting.

Although I have to say,
I don't agree with them.

(Jose speaking in foreign language)

(Apolinar speaking in foreign language)

(Josephina speaking in foreign language)

Sort of like a scary, scary experience

with my friends and stuff,

maybe like sneak in at night or something,

and so yeah, once he
told us this story about

how he saw the aliens or whatever.

(speaking in foreign language)

His castle's like a center for the...

(speaking in foreign language)

For the aliens or something.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(Rolf speaking in foreign language)

[Rolf] This is the sun, and
around the sun are spaceships.

Many, many.

You can see the gas propulsion, the tail.

I take some picture, and I help.

I take a picture

from the castle
From the UFO.

And I help.

He's UFO photographer.

He's my friend for a long time.

With this, he do it.

Like family.

They have a very nice
love for him in Sosua.

It's really sweet the way they treat him.

He used to be dirt poor for
a while after the prison,

and they always helped him.

He was never hungry, he
was always looked after.

So people accept him and love him.

He's been lucky, he's been lucky.

(Nico speaking in foreign language)

The community accepts you
and loves you the way you are,

and that's obviously your home, you know,

that that's the first
time I think in his life

that he felt that way.

(engine chugging)

Explosion over US space
rocket, I notice here.

It's an old oxygen system

to get the power by oxygen and fuel,

and not atomic power.

But all the space is
going in atomic power.

(Tutti Frutti speaking
in foreign language)

(Rolf speaking in foreign language)

He's the builder of the castle.

This is Tutti Frutti.

Tutti Frutti is famous,
famous man in Sosua.

(Tutti Frutti speaking
in foreign language)

(chuckling)

(upbeat music)

(Rolf speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

He built his castle
with a huge workforce.

He loves the Haitian guys and
he loves having them around.

He finds them very pleasant,

and he really thinks he won the lottery.

Probably the most consistent
human relationship

my dad had in the last two decades

in terms of faithfulness and
loyalty and stuff like that.

(men speaking in foreign language)

(soft music)

(Vincente speaking in foreign language)

(Rolf speaking in foreign language)

(Vincente speaking in foreign language)

Only Vincente and I sleep here.

The other are friends,
visitors, and workers.

We are just a team together.

I'm not a teacher like
in a religious wisdom

or something, you know.

If you do this, you have followers,

and you cannot get any more concentrate

in the artwork you know,
or on the technology.

(Rolf speaking in foreign language)

(Vincente speaking in foreign language)

He can do it, I can do it not anymore.

(laughing)

I have demons in my body.

Like a music demon, like a painter demon,

like an architecture demon
or like a technical demon.

They never let me peace.

They never let me in peace.

Not only a house, it's a castle.

It's Mundo King.

There's sculptures too, I like that,

it's really great.

Great, great, great.

And the big, the big heads,
stone heads, really great.

I saw the first one, maybe 24 years ago.

First time, 24 years ago,
I saw the first head.

Really good stories but it's not, not, no,

never, never, ever fathering me.

Barbados was great.

Just nothing fathering me, I can remember.

New York with Joe was cool,

there's nothing I can
remember fathering me.

It didn't cooperate.

He said "No, no, it's my way.

Kids, okay, I have to go my way."

For some time, the other people likes it,

but the product of it at the end.

[Interviewer] Did you move
to the Dominican by yourself?

By myself, alone, no family.

And I'm just alone, I can
reach more when I'm alone,

no partners, big discussions,
no debts with money.

I think he's somebody
who doesn't open up

his inner feelings or
can open up so easily,

but can do it via the castle.

The alien space fleets are always coming

when there is something new,

but they will not come for small things.

When there are coming thirty
spaceships from far away,

they will not come for two
or three figures, you know.

They want to see some
architecture, some steelwork,

some new models of spaceships,

and monsters too.

So I don't know what they like more,

the monsters, the spaceship,
or the architecture,

but I think it goes all together
like a big total artwork,

you know, total artwork altogether.

(soft music)

So sometimes I'm selling
a little bit art here,

but I have no big income.

I can only work slowly, you know?

And I can do much more.

The spaceships are, I
would call it like a band,

I think he's like looking
at himself like a musician

who puts out certain
things that are unique

and they're like his band,
and he's like the front man.

And they're like, they help
him having an identity.

That's I think what the spaceships are,

they reinforce his identity,

that he's not like this crazy German,

he's crazy German with
his band, the spaceships,

Rolf and the crazy rockets, you know?

That's like, I think
that's how he sees himself.

Well, how I think he sees his
act as being more successful.

(electronic music)

I feel when they are there.

Last time was sometime ago.

More than one year ago.

And they're doing something.

They're making tornadoes.

When I wanted a tornado,
the tornado was coming.

Our sun is besieged by alien
space fleets every day.

Every day they are around.

Every day, and you can take it by camera.

People treated me so bad.

They tried to kill me,
destroyed all my art in Hamburg,

put me in jail, so I sent a tornado.

But this is not enough
for the sins of that city,

so they will have more
storms, heavy tornadoes.

I'm sorry for this.

I can show you original videos
from the alien movement.

You will be astonished,
you will not believe it.

The pilots are crazy, crazy, crazy.

(spaceship whooshing)

Look, him, the blue pilot,
the blue pilot, my friend.

The alien who does it I
have on the photo now.

Three here of this arm,

and this is a new one, taking flesh.

It comes some blood.

Not much blood.

They're cloning people.

They take your dreams out.

And I think you can find this
all in the cosmic radiancy.

This came from space.

This is not from here.

And you see it's burned here.

There's something inside.

You wanna be a radiancy
soul? A subatomic guy?

You wanna be a subatomic guy

and going around together
with billions of others.

Some people blog, he's doing something

a little more involved than just blogging.

The other people, in a sense
they're more full of shit

because, you know, they do that

and then they go to the mall

and they go to their job or whatever,

it's like, at least he's
living his conviction.

You know, when the person
is crazy and gets famous,

they put that person in stone.

[Interviewer] Yeah.

Maybe he can be a bad man or a good man.

He has to be crazy.

Everybody is a dreamer.

Everybody dreams.

Even the animal dreams.

But you can fulfill your dreams by works.

You can do it, you can try it.

(waves crashing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(soft music)

(broom sweeping)

(thunder booming)

Is already getting drunk!

(laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(woman speaking in foreign language)

Oh, that is so sweet.

I'm gonna miss this crazy son of a bitch.

It was really weird, I
didn't think much of it,

but when I said goodbye,

I thought it's the last time I see him.

But then I didn't think
that that would be the case,

but it was my feelings, so...

(speaking in foreign language)

So, we miss Rolf.

He was a really good friend, you know.

The last eating, it was by me, you know.

Yeah.

But it was two week ago, but
we never know he was so sick.

So at the last one, we notice,

we decide to go to
hospital, it was too late.

But he was a super guy in life.

Super guy, man.

(storm booming)

Yes, what what to do with it?

It's not only half.

And it was not only a father.

It wasn't a father.

But yeah, everybody's interested,

everybody is interested, what
will happen to the house?

Everybody.

And I cannot answer it, it's not possible.

You have to sign, sign that for you.

[Suzie] All right.

You have some documents,
those are for...

He would like it if we
played "Saxamania" here.

But he would most like it if we have

a big PA or you call it on the rooftop

so the whole of Sosua can
hear it, the king died.

(chuckling)

That, Rolf would like, I think.

It's only rain or someone is crying.

(chuckling)

(speaking in foreign language)

(people speaking in foreign language)

We try to keep it for you all.

Have to see it if it's possible.

He didn't leave a note
as to what he wants done,

or what do you think?

Don't want to talk about it.

Okay.

(chuckling)

What do you think he would want done?

He would want me to stay here?

Really?

I think so.

That's big, big demand.

But everyone is interested
in what will happen

in the future with the castle.

Of course.

They are interested in,
you are interested in,

Sosua is interested in, maybe
the whole northern coast

of the Dominican Republic
is interested in.

What to do?

Go my way, go your way, go her way?

Need the way in between.

To the street.

(chuckling)

(speaking in foreign language)

(people applauding)

He wants to live in like, Sosua,

he was like an inspiration for me, man.

I was done.

You make arts too, now.

He was always passing by, walking,

he was inspirational for us.

Careful of the ramp.

Come in and feel free.

It's funny.

Tourists, no more tourists come in here.

See that happening, don't
know what's happened.

Only taking a look.

It's not.

Painters, actors.

They feel about Rolf like they know him.

Have you seen the one thing on the roof

where sign immortal Rolf?

I told you yesterday,
he's living everywhere,

in your heart, my heart, his heart.

People, you let her touch your heart.

(sighing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(soft violin music)

What did they say?

At six o'clock, it's the
next happening or whatever?

(people applauding)

(people cheering)

[Man] Yeah, baby!

This was a fire, it's the
right time for "Saxamania"

The right time for "Saxamania" now.

Rolf, I think is in a good place,

very happy, wherever he is.

Really nice to see that.

He had so much friend.

He's here.

Right here or everywhere, he's everywhere.

He's in the building, in
our hearts, in the fire.

In the wind, in the rain.

(metallic banging)

(soft music)

It's more or less one concept.

The concept was that I tried
to attract foreign cultures,

with open terraces, with
spaceships on the roof,

with monsters, biological
monster sculptures outside.

I don't know who is God,

but I tried to attract God too, you know?

A little bit.

'Cause for me, God is an artist.

For sure he's an artist.

The only evidence we have
from him, he's an artist.