Norfolk resident, director Diego Ongaro’s film Down with the King is showing on Netflix starting January 18, 2024.

Down with the King tells the story of Money Merc (played by Grammy Award nominated rapper Freddie Gibbs), a popular rapper burned out by fame, who retreats to a farming community to rekindle his sense of purpose – even as the industry tries to lure him back.

The film was shot primarily in Southern Berkshire county, in Sandisfield, MA. Additional locations are Great Barrington (Carr Hardware store), Mount Everett State Park, the Hunter Theater at Mass Moca etc… The cast was made from a mix of professional actors and non professional (and often local) non actors. This film forms a diptych with Bob and Trees, his first feature film, which tells the story of Bob (played by local forester Bob Tarasuk), a logger struggling to make ends meet during a harsh winter. Bob and the Trees was filmed in the same logging and farming community of Western MA and and has some returning characters.

 DOWN WITH THE KING is his second feature film. It premiered at Cannes in 2021 (ACID section), won the Grand Prix at the Deauville American FF in France and played in over 30 international film Festivals across the world. It was released by Sony in the summer of 2022. The New York Times’ AO Scott chose the film as one of the top ten films of 2022, and the New York Times Magazine chose his lead actor, Freddie Gibbs, as one of the top ten actors of the year.