The concert film gives viewers a look at the Madame X Tour through the eyes of Madonna and her fearless persona, Madame X, a secret agent who travels around the world, fighting for freedom. Nuno Xico, one of the documentary’s directors, says that the album is political — featuring songs about gun control, as well as rights for minorities, women and the LGBTQIA+ community — which, in turn, makes the film political as well.
“If you distill the songs, those themes are already there, so to bring those themes [to the film] was easy,” Xico told The Hollywood Reporter. “Madonna is political.”
Xico and fellow directors Sasha Kasiuha and Ricardo Gomes worked long hours, sometimes six days a week, as Kasiuha noted that collaborating with Madonna was “intense” and “exciting.”
“It’s great. You get to work with someone who has a unique point of view and a unique experience,” Xico added. “It’s really inspiring, honestly. We’re definitely lucky to be able to work with someone like Madonna.”
Apart from her concert film, the iconic pop star also has a biopic in the works, which she’ll direct and co-write alongside screenwriter Erin Wilson, who remembers watching and re-watching Madonna’s Truth or Dare.
“It made many of us feel like, ‘Oh, we can go that far. Let’s do it in our own way, in our venue,’” she told THR. “I don’t know a woman in my life that doesn’t say to me, ‘[Madonna] saved my life. She really, really gave me power to be who I am.’”
The upcoming biopic will follow Madonna’s rise to prominence as the culture-defining artist she is today. Though it’ll detail a different era of her life, there’s one thing she’ll take with her from Madame X to the biopic: her work ethic, with a commitment to “pay attention to detail, to leave no stone unturned, to keep pushing until you get to what you feel is the best possible,” Madonna told THR. “Madame X … is me telling a story about my life.”
Drew Barrymore, designer Christian Siriano and Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski were also in attendance at the premiere event. The concert film starts streaming exclusively on Paramount+ on Oct. 8.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.