Page 23 - LEFILMFRANCAIS_3954_2021_02_26
P. 23

23







         I’m your Man                              Next Door
         by Maria Schrader (Germany)               by Daniel Brühl (Germany)
         As a follow-up project to her successful Netflix series   World known and acclaimed German actor Daniel Brühl
         Unorthodox, Maria Schrader has staged the tragic   (Goodbye Lenin, Inglorious Basterds) is making
         comedy Ich bin dein Mensch, a script she wrote with Jan   his directorial debut with the dark comedy Nebenan
         Schomburg, The shooting was recently completed    (its German title), penned by author Daniel Kehlmann
         in Denmark. In the near future. Maren Eggert embodies   and based on an original idea by Brühl who also
         Alma, a scientist who, as part of a study, lives    appears in front of the camera as the lead. Set against
         for three weeks with a robot that is tailored    the background of gentrification and social inequalities   Natural Light by Dénes Nagy.  © TAMAS DABOS
         to her character and needs. This robot, which    in Berlin, Brühl’s personal project centers on a film star
         is supposed to be the perfect life partner for Alma,   who is being confronted by his neighbor (Babylon
         lends his voice to the British actor Dan Stevens   Berlin‘s Peter Kurth) with revelations that threaten
         (Downton Abbey). The Letterbox production    to destroy his private life and career.
         was commissioned by SWR.                  International sales: Warner Bros Entertainment
         International sales: Beta Cinema
                                                   Petite maman
         Introduction                              by Céline Sciamma (France)
         by Hong Sang-soo (South Korea)                        th
                                                   Céline Sciamma 5  feature film is based on an original
                                        th
         Award-winning director Hong Sang-soo’s 25  feature   script that she finalized last summer. After the period
                       th
         film also marks his 5  time competing for a prize    drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire, released a little
         at the Berlin Festival. Introduction is divided into three   over a year ago (winner of the Screenplay Prize
         parts in which a young man named Young-ho goes    at Cannes) with worldwide acclaim and success,
         on a journey to visit his father, his significant other    the director of Tomboy returns to look at childhood
         and his mother. Most recently, Hong Sang-soo received    in a contemporary story where the main characters
         the Best Director Prize at the 70  Berlinale    are two 8-year-old children. At her side, Bénédicte
                               th
         for The Woman Who Ran. He then became the second   Couvreur is producing with Lilies Films. This 2,8M€   Next Door by Daniel Brühl.   © REINER BAJO
         South Korean filmmaker to earn this award. The late   feature is backed by Canal+, Ciné+ and France
                                                   Télévisions, in co-production with France 3 Cinéma.
         Kim Ki-duk won in 2004 with Samaritan Girl.  Pyramide will distribute it in France.
         International sales: Finecut              International sales: MK2 Films
         Memory Box                                A Cop Movie
         by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige    by Alonso Ruizpalacios (Mexico)
         (France, Lebanon, Canada, Qatar)
         Written by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige    This story between documentary and fiction addresses
                                                   the background of police impunity in Mexico.
         with the collaboration of Gaëlle Macé and Fadette   “As an innovative documentary and narrative
         Drouard, Memory Box is a Franco-Canadian-Lebanese    experiment, Una pelicula de policias (in Spanish)
         co-production, handled by Carole Scotta and Barbara   immerses the viewer in an unusual space.
         Letellier (Haut et Court), Georges Schoucair    The film puts the spotlight on the police, one
         and Christian Eid (Abbout Productions), Kim McCraw,   of the most controversial institutions in Mexico
         Luc Déry and Jasmyrh Lemoine (Micro_Scope).    and the world,” explains the Mexican production                              © LILIES FILMS
         Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with    company No Ficcion. This Netflix original film marks   Petite maman de Céline Sciamma.
         her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve,    Alonso Ruizpalacios’ return to the Berlinale,
         they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks,   after he won the Golden Bear for Best First Film in 2014
         cassettes and photos that Maia sent to her best friend   with Güeros and was awarded the Silver Bear
         in Beirut in the 1980s. Maia refuses to open the box    for Best Screenplay for Museo in 2018.
         or to confront her memories, but Alex secretly dives   International sales: Netflix
         into it…  Filmmakers and artists Joana Hadjithomas
         and Khalil Joreige create thematic and formal links   What Do we See
         between photography, video, performance, installation,   When we Look at the Sky?
         sculpture and cinema, whether in documentary    by Aleksandre Koberidze (Germany, Georgia)                                  © NO FICCION
         or fictional films. They have produced numerous titles                               A Cop Movie by Alonso Ruizpalacios.
         which have been presented and awarded worldwide.  It’s love at first sight when Lisa and Giorgi meet
         International sales: Playtime             by chance on a street in the Georgian city of Kutaisi.
                                                   Love hits them so suddenly they even forget to ask each
         Natural Light                             other’s names. Before continuing on their way,
         by Dénes Nagy (Hungary, Latvia, France, Germany)  they agree to meet the next day. Little do they know
         After a prolific early career of 12 multi awarded    that an evil eye has cast its spell on them… After Temur
                                                   Babluani’s The Sun of the Sleepless received the Silver
         short films (both fiction and documentaries)    Bear in Berlin in 1993, no full-length Georgian film
         since 2004, Natural Light is Dénes Nagy’s first full-  was selected in the festival’s main competition.
         length feature. Written by Dénes Nagy after    After a pause of almost 30 years, Alexandre Koberidze’s
         Pál Závada’s novel Természetes fény, the script    Georgian-German co-production world premiere
         is set in World War II. In that period, more than   will take place.
         100,000 Hungarian soldiers were serving    International sales: Cercamon             What Do we See When we Look at the Sky?    © FARAZ FESHARAKI/DFFB
         on the occupied territories of the Soviet Union.                                     by Alexandre Koberidze.
         Produced by Campfilm, Natural Light is co-produced    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
         by Mistrus Media (Latvia), Lilith Films (France),   by Hamaguchi Ryusuke (Japan)
         Propellerfilm (Germany) and Proton Cinema (Hungary).
         International sales: Luxbox               Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is made up
                                                   of three stories that share a theme of coincidence
                                                © HAUT ET COURT-ABBOUT PRODUCTIONS-MICRO_SCOPE  festival journey from Passion (San Sebastian,
                                                   and imagination, a look at the unexpectedness
                                                   of the world. Hamaguchi Ruysuke has already a rich
                                                   Tokyo Filmex), Happy Hour (special mention for Best
                                                   Script and Best Actress at Locarno in 2015), Asako I & II
                                                   (in competition at Cannes in 2018). Recently, he was
                                                   the screenwriter on Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy,

                                                   Film Festival.
          Memory Box by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.  which won the Silver Lion at the 2020 Venice    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.   © NEOPA-FICTIVE
                                                   International sales: M-appeal
                                                                                                                    N° 3954 du 26 février 2021
   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28