The Circus Dynasty

Once upon a time there were two famous circus families in northern Europe: the Berdino family (the biggest) and the Casselly family (the most acclaimed). Within the space of a year, a Berdino son and a Casselly daughter were born. They grew up together and what everyone hoped would happen, did happen: they fell in love. It sounds like a fairytale, and that’s how the story is filmed. Patrick Berdino and Merrylu Casselly are an invincible duo in the ring, and a golden promise for the future of a circus dynasty. The families have been traveling together for 20 years, and the cameras follow the tribulations, speculations and especially the developments around this ideal circus couple over the course of several seasons. The cameras are rolling when Casselly gets an offer from the celebrated American circus Barnum & Bailey’s – but accepting would mean that Patrick and Merrylu would be separated. They film the daily routines, the setting up and breaking down of the tents and caravans, the stories of the ancestral fathers and mothers, the travails and suffering of the artists, and the first, inevitable, cracks in the circus romance of the century. The high points, literally, are the superb atmospheric shots of the glittering illusion created in the ring – no place for tears and pain.