www.ScreenDaily.com
Festival del film Locarno 2014
Locarno FiLm FestivaL August 6-16, 2014
UK office Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton St, London EC2A 4HJ Tel: +44 (0) 20 3033 4267 US office Screen International, 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, #707, West Hollywood, CA 90069 E-mail: firstname.lastname@screendaily.com (unless stated) Editorial Supplement editor Sarah Cooper Editor Wendy Mitchell +44 (0) 20 3033 2816 Chief critic and reviews editor Mark Adams +44 (0) 20 3033 4213 Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray +44 (0) 20 3033 2817 Group art director, MBI
the personAl touch In the same way they say dogs can look like their owners, film festivals can take on the temperament of their artistic director. Some festival directors and festivals are haughty with huge egos, some are party-hard hipsters wanting to reinvent the wheel. Whenever I bump into Carlo Chatrian, who has been at the helm of Locarno for two years, he’s smart yet friendly and gushing with film recommendations. Those qualities are reflected in the Locarno festival itself. It is a film lover’s festival… with an edge. It may have huge Piazza Grande screenings but it doesn’t have the looming ego of some other big festivals. Locarno manages to walk the tightrope of presenting thought-provoking and exciting new voices while offering impeccable retrospectives. There is the feeling of wanting to connect the past and present, to “look at the development of cinema in general”, as Chatrian says.
Industry Days, run by Nadia Dresti and her colleagues, also makes Locarno an important stop for the industry; this year’s Open Doors revisits Sub-Saharan Africa to present a range of diverse voices; and the Carte Blanche programme offers networking opportunities with the country of the moment, Brazil. Plus the STEP IN programme opens up to become more global. Sitting in the Piazza Grande on a clear summer night is one of the great pleasures of the festival calendar. It’s not just a pretty setting, it’s a feeling of being among several thousand people who love film (and who appreciate that the projection and sound are better than 99% of outdoor venues around the world). Will there be a more sumptuous setting to watch The Leopard as part of the Titanus retrospective? And a scoop of gelato won’t hurt the mood. Wendy Mitchell, editor
Peter Gingell +44 (0) 20 3033 4203 peter.gingell@mb-insight.com Sub editor Adam Richmond Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 Sales manager Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Sales manager Nadia Romdhani (maternity leave) UK, South Africa, Middle East
2
8
4
Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, Eastern Europe Gunter Zerbich +44 (0) 20 3033 2930 Italy, Asia, India Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768 ingridhammond@libero.it VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 323 654 2301 / 213 447 5120 nigeldalymail@gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 (0) 20 3033 4296 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI
2 A return to AfricA In her first year as head of Locarno’s co-production lab Open Doors, Ananda Scepka brings the focus back to Sub-Saharan Africa
4 open seAson Screen looks at the 12 projects selected for Open Doors, from sci-fi desert odyssey to a civil war story to a survival-at-sea tale
8 independent spirit Carlo Chatrian, Locarno Film Festival’s artistic director, talks about new talent, old faces and maintaining the festival’s vision
16
Alison Pitchford +44 (0) 20 3033 2949
12 industry dAys steps up
alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com
Locarno’s Industry Days prepares for the third edition of its STEP IN initiative
Subscription customer service +44 (0) 1604 828 706 help@subscribe.screendaily.com
14 BrAzil in the spotlight
Sales administrator
The fourth Carte Blanche showcases the country of the moment, Brazil
Justyna Zieba +44 (0) 20 3033 2694 justyna.zieba@mb-insight.com Chief Executive, MBI conor.dignam@mb-insight.com
16 the hottest tickets in town
Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots
Profiles of the films in the Piazza Grande and International Competition sections
Conor Dignam +44 (0) 20 3033 2717
14
www.screendaily.com
18
18 honour Bound Film legends being recognised by the festival
August 2014 Screen International 1
Locarno overview
Alamork Marsha’s Fig Tree is one of this year’s 12 Open Doors projects
A return to Africa In her first year as head of Locarno’s co-production lab Open Doors, Ananda Scepka brings the focus back to Sub-Saharan Africa. Martin Blaney discovers why
L
ocarno’s co-production laboratory Open Doors returns to the African continent this year — focusing on 25 Sub-Saharan countries from Angola to Zimbabwe — having last shone the spotlight on French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa in 2012. “There is a real dynamism in the region and the film-making is very diverse,” says Ananda Scepka, who took over from Martina Malacrida this year as head of Open Doors, now in its 12th year, which supports filmmakers from southern and eastern countries where cinema is still developing. “It’s a big region to focus on, with a diversity of historical contexts and different models of production and distribution within each of these countries. But we felt it was time to concentrate on this other side of African cinema,” says Scepka, who has worked at Locarno Film Festival from 2009 in various functions, becoming the Open Doors coordinator in 2012. She will be collaborating on this edition with Alex Moussa Sawadogo, founder of Berlin-based film festival Afrikamera, who also advised in 2012. With more than 190 submissions for this year’s event, the 12 selected projects hail from Angola, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Ghana. These projects will compete for the main $56,000 (chf50,000) award, with two further awards offered by France’s CNC and ARTE.
2 Screen International August 2014
The line-up includes projects from more established film-makers such as Angola’s Zézé Gamboa and Mozambique’s Sol de Carvalho and Licinio de Azevedo as well as young talents such as Zambia-born Rungano Nyoni, who co-directed short Listen, which screened at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. The directors and producers attached to the projects will attend the four-day event, which is backed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and consists of training sessions, round tables, meetings with European producers and workshops. Sub-Saharan challenges Since its launch, Open Doors has showcased the work of film-makers from regions where cinema is considered vulnerable, including Southeast Asia, India, Cuba, Greater China and, most recently in 2013, South Caucasus. “As with every year, some of the projects’ themes are universal while others are connected with this specific region, such as the issues of migration, war and ways of addressing and confronting colonialism,” says Scepka, who also points to gender and women’s roles in African society, history and the topical issue of homosexuality as being popular themes. The key challenges facing Sub-Saharan film-makers are, according to Scepka, often
‘There is a real dynamism in the region and the film-making is very diverse’ Ananda Scepka, Locarno Film Festival
the same as those confronting many independent film-makers elsewhere. “In most countries there isn’t any structured access to public funding, and distribution in these countries is very difficult as, in most cases, the cinemas are closing down.” Another challenge, says Scepka, is the “lack of any commitment from public authorities to support the audiovisual sector in many countries, although there are exceptions such as South Africa, which has had quite a clear policy in supporting this sector since 1999, and Kenya since 2006. Similarly, there is a lack of any engagement by television.” Still, European initiatives such as Tom Tykwer and Marie Steinmann’s One Fine Day Films workshops in Nairobi; German director Volker Schlöndorff ’s support for Kwetu Film Institute in Kigali, Rwanda; and the workshops organised across the continent by the Goethe Institut and EAVE, are going some way towards the development of training schemes and improving technical standards across the region. “The digital revolution gives a different access to film-making and you now see many film schools being started by African filmmakers,” adds Scepka. Film schools to have sprung up include Blue Nile School in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Kibera Film School in Kenya and Kilimanjaro Film Institute in Tanzania. She also points to the region’s other key
www.screendaily.com
Fig Tree, and Juliette Grandmont of France’s Clandestine Films, who is co-producing Rungano Nyoni’s Zambian film I Am Not A Witch. Recent Open Doors success stories include Emir Baigazin’s Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons, which was presented at Open Doors’ Central Asia focus in 2011 and Celina Murga’s The Third Side Of The River, which came out of Open Doors in 2008 and premiered in Berlin’s Official Competition earlier this year.
steps, such as the establishment of Durban FilmMart as well as Indian director Mira Nair’s decision to set up Maisha Film Lab for East African and South Asian film-makers.
europe calling Thanks to its partnerships with Ateliers du Cinema Européen (ACE), European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) and Cannes’ Producers Network, the 2014 edition of Open Doors is expected to attract around 50 international producers including regulars such as Guillaume de Seille of France’s Arizona Films, who describes Open Doors as “one of the most friendly industry places to discover directors from emerging regions of the world, because both the invited projects and the industry attendees are carefully selected under Locarno’s legendary rules”. EAVE graduates set to attend include France’s Marie Dubas (Les Films d’Antoine), Tunisia’s Mohamed Ali Ben Hamra (Polimovie International Pictures), Romania’s Dan Burlac (Elefant Films), Germany’s Hans Eddy Schreiber (Karibufilm) and France’s Karim Aitouna (hautlesmains productions). “We had a very positive reaction to this year’s country focus of Open Doors and our producers are keen to discover new projects from Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Kristina Trapp, CEO of Luxembourg-based producer training scheme EAVE, which has collaborated with Open Doors since its 2003 launch. Five of this year’s 12 Open Doors projects already have EAVE graduates onboard, including Israeli producer Saar Yogev of Black Sheep Productions, who has become a partner of Alamork Marsha’s Ethiopian project
Bearing fruit In terms of securing co-production and financing deals, Scepka cites the 2012 focus on Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa as “a particularly fruitful one”. Michel K Zongo, for example, recently wrapped principal photography in Burkina Faso on his doc The Siren Of Faso Fani, which was co-produced by Michael Bogar’s Perfect Shot Films of Germany and French producer Christian Lelong of Cinédoc Films. Mali director Daouda Coulibaly is now working with French producer Eric Névé, a co-writer of Moussa Touré’s 2012 film La Pirogue, on the development of political thriller Ladji Nye to shoot this year. Meanwhile, the European Union’s Programme for supporting cultural industries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states gave backing to Ladji Nye, Burkinabe director Adama Sallé’s Qui Parle De Vaincre? (previously Pakitalaki, Portrait d’Une Famille) and Mauritian feature Shadows Of The Sugarcane from David Constantin, while Norway’s Sor Fund backed Akosua Adoma Owusu’s Ghana-Mexico film Black Sunshine. Of last year’s projects from the South Cau-
‘Our producers are keen to discover new and strong projects from Sub-Saharan Africa’ Kristina Trapp, eAVe
Open dOOrS 2014: Sub-SAhArAn AFricA
Key 1
Angola Botswana 3 Cape Verde 4 Eritrea 5 Ethiopia 6 The Gambia 7 Ghana 8 Kenya 9 Lesotho 10 Liberia 11 Malawi 12 Mozambique 13 Namibia 14 Nigeria 15 Sao Tomé and Principe 16 Sierra Leone 17 Somalia 18 South Africa 19 South Sudan 20 Sudan 21 Swaziland 22 Tanzania 23 Uganda 24 Zambia 25 Zimbabwe 2
www.screendaily.com
3
20
4
6 14
16 10
5
19
7
23
15
8
22
1
11
24
25 13
2
21
18 9
12
17
casus region, producer-director Rusudan Pirveli’s Sleeping Lessons was shot in the spring, Nino Gogua’s feature documentary Madona is almost complete, as is Alexander Kvatashidze’s documentary debut See You In Chechnya. Another Georgian project — producer Rusudan Glurjidze’s directorial debut House Of Others — began shooting in May, while film-maker Asif Rustamov, from Azerbaijan, attended the sixth Moscow Business Square’s co-production forum at the end of June to pitch Pipeline, which already has German coproducer Ayhan Salar of Salarfilm attached. In addition, Thierry Lenouvel of Cinésud Promotion brought Armenian writer-director Nora Martirosyan’s fiction feature debut Territoria to Amiens International Film Festival, where it won a $14,000 (¤10,000) script development grant. “A lot of things will now start for her in France after winning in Amiens,” Lenouvel says. Building on success “It’s important for me to strengthen and consolidate everything that’s been achieved up until now,” Scepka says about the development of the Open Doors platform. “We adapt the programme each year because each region has its own characteristics, but there are other innovations this year.” For example, Scepka is building on last year’s introduction of two half-day workshops for participants by entering into a collaboration with Torino FilmLab. “Until now, we had concentrated on the production, distribution and exhibition side, but working with the experts of Torino FilmLab will allow us to address the creative aspects such as the script,” she explains, adding that four projects had been selected for extra script mentoring ahead of Open Doors. Three producers of this year’s Open Doors projects will also have the opportunity to participate in Cannes’ Producers Network in 2015, while two African film-makers not selected for Open Doors have the chance to join Locarno’s parallel Filmmakers Academy Scepka sees the potential for “a very important synergy” between the festival’s Carte Blanche section, which this year focuses on Brazil, and Portuguese-speaking film-makers from Angola and Mozambique. “We want to build bridges with other parts of the festival’s industry section and the Summer Academy. The main aim of Open Doors is to be a business exchange to put co-productions into place, but it’s also somewhere for an exchange of knowledge and experiences.” Looking to the future of Open Doors, Scepka says they “haven’t run out of regions, but it isn’t a case of covering the whole world at all costs”. “It’s likely that we could repeat a past regional focus if there is a particular dynamism in a region’s film industry and an interesting new generation that could benefit s from such a co-production platform.” n
August 2014 Screen International 3
LOCARNO OPEN DOORS
Open season Some 12 projects have been selected for Open Doors, from a sci-fi desert odyssey to a civil war story to a fishing adventure tale. By Geoffrey Macnab and Louise Tutt Alamork Marsha
Zézé Gamboa
Aleluia (Ango)
Fig Tree (Eth-Isr)
Dir Zézé Gamboa Prod co Gamboa & Gamboa
Dir Alamork Marsha Prod co Black Sheep Film Productions
The Portuguese-language feature drama from the Angolan director of The Hero, which won the world cinema grand jury prize at Sundance in 2005, is based on the true story of four fishermen who survived 60 days adrift at sea in their boat, the Aleluia. The film is about the unique way in which the men — from Cape Verde, the archipelago off the coast of Western Africa — survive the ordeal. “The narrative explores the singular way the four men avoid succumbing to an apparently inevitable fate,” director Zézé Gamboa says. “Accepting their differences, weaknesses and errors, each man recognises himself as individually essential to the survival of the four.” More than an adventure saga and a story of man against the elements, Aleluia will also be a riposte to the cult of the individual. “What moves me to make this film is the fragility of human life and experience, and our utter inability to control our environment or situations,” Gamboa says. “When our impotence is extreme, all that is best and worst in human behaviour comes to the fore.” Shooting is expected to start on the $2.7m (¤2m) project in Cape Verde in October 2015, with most of the film being set at sea. A former TV news journalist and director, and a leading sound engineer, Gamboa is producing Aleluia through his 14-year-old outfit Gamboa & Gamboa. Most recently, the fim-maker’s comedy drama The Great Kilapy was selected to screen at film festivals including Toronto and London. Contact Zézé Gamboa zezegamboa@hotmail.com
4 Screen International August 2014
Faraway Friends
Faraway Friends (S Afr-Les) Dir Teboho Edkins Prod co STEPS Faraway Friends is a 70-minute documentary about four teenagers growing up in a small village in the mountains of Lesotho. Like teenagers all over the world, their lives revolve around friendships, families, church and school. But they must also contend with the specific challenges of life in rural Africa. “Everybody says the hope of the African continent rests on its favourable demographics, on the shoulders of the young people. I wanted to understand what this means,” says film-maker Teboho Edkins. “This, coupled with growing up in Lesotho myself and always having wanted to make a film in the high mountains, meant the idea came about very organically.” The film-maker got to know the village of Ha Sekake with the help of STEPS, a non-profit production and distribution company based in Cape Town. It works throughout the region
Teboho Edkins
on documentary films with themes of social justice. Returning seven times over several years to take in the different seasons, Edkins realised he could use a different documentary technique with each of his protagonists. “With the boys it is a more classical observational documentary style, while with the girls it’s more playful documentary film-making, where one feels the director’s mise-en-scene strongly,” he says. Edkins is in Locarno with a rough cut of the $165,000 (¤120,000) film to find partners to help complete Faraway Friends’ post-production. “We hope that Open Doors will help launch the film into the international film world, as it’s a production from a country that has no film industry and no presence on the festival circuit.” Contact Teboho Edkins tebohoedkins @gmail.com STEPS don@steps.co.za
Fig Tree takes its inspiration from the real-life experiences of its Ethiopia-born writer-director Alamork Marsha. Like the film’s protagonist, Mina, Marsha grew up with her Jewish family on the outskirts of Addis Ababa during the Ethiopian civil war of the 1980s and early 1990s before moving to Israel to escape the conflict. Amid the return of her injured brother from the battlefields, Fig Tree sees Mina planning for her Christian boyfriend Eli to join her family in Israel. “The heart of the film will be the description of Mina’s daily life,” Marsha says. “Through her, I wish to describe the surreal situation in which people miraculously manage to build a normal life during wartime.” The $1.9m (¤1.4m) film will be shot in the Shola (Fig) neighbourhood where it is set. “Shola was a neighbourhood that embraced people from different tribes and religions that were all rejected by the big city,” Marsha says. Fig Tree is being produced by Israelbased Black Sheep Film Productions, the production company of acclaimed producer Saar Yogev and award-winning director and producer Naomi Levari. “We were carried away by a very special script, both in its plot as well as its unique atmosphere,” the producers explain. In mid-July, the project won the top prize at Jerusalem International Film Lab. “We want to understand how it is received in the fresh eyes of potential future collaborators,” say the producers. Contact Black Sheep Film Productions saar@bsheepfilms.com naomi@bsheepfilms.com
www.screendaily.com
First Man (S Afr) Dir Jahmil XT Qubeka Prod co Spier Films First Man is a sci-fi odyssey set 50,000 years ago in the Kalahari, about a prehistoric tribe of nomadic women, led by the pregnant Nxonxo, who trek across the desert to find out what or who has taken all their menfolk. “I am fascinated by the genesis of humanity,” says South African writerdirector Jahmil XT Qubeka. “Where we think we come from, why we are here and where are we going. First Man attempts to tackle these themes. At its core, it is a fantasy adventure tale of selfdiscovery in a changing world.” The film’s mythology is based on the belief that Earth was visited many times in its history by technologically advanced alien beings.
Jahmil XT Qubeka
Hot Comb (Ug-Neth) Dir Caroline Kamya Prod co Ivad International Uganda-born, UK-based film-maker Caroline Kamya broke onto the scene with Imani, which opened the Berlinale Forum in 2010. Her second feature, Hot Comb, is a coming-of-age story set in 1961 about two young women at a missionary boarding school in Uganda. As the country transitions to independence, it tells the story of Magdalena, who has lived a sheltered life in the leafy Kampala suburbs, but whose eyes are opened to the reality of her country’s colonial past when she makes friends with mixed-race Nassolo. “Life within a boarding school for both students and staff really fascinates me,” says Kamya. “Elements of institutional life such as the hierarchy, structure and culture, or sub-culture, are mirrored in
Heart And Fire
Qubeka’s previous feature, black-andwhite noir thriller Of Good Report, won several awards and screened at festivals including Toronto and London. “First Man is about an earth-toned natural habitat juxtaposed with ageing, rustic, polluted technology,” says Qubeka of the look of the film. It is being produced by Mike Auret’s Cape Town, London and Reykjavik-based production and financing outfit Spier Films, which also produced Of Good Report. They aim to shoot the $785,000 (¤580,000) film in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. “Locarno is a fantastic opportunity to gauge the arthouse market,” says Qubeka. “We’ll maximise our networking opportunities to see who is out there, financiers or co-producers.” Contact Jahmil XT Qubeka serpenthunter@spierfilms.com
wider society as a whole.” The title is a reference to the process of straightening Afro hair and how it springs back to its curls at the earliest opportunity. “I saw Nassolo going through the process and saw the parallel with colonial ‘straightening’, so to speak,” Kamya explains. Hot Comb, like Imani, is written by Kamya’s sister Agnes Kamya, and the pair have developed the project at the prestigious Binger FilmLab in Netherlands, where Kamya met her Dutch co-producer Danielle Guirguis of Smarthousefilms. Kamya, who is also producing the project through her Ivad Productions, hopes to start production in August 2015 in Uganda and South Africa. The $700,000 (¤515,000) project has received $40,000 (¤30,000) of development support from the Hubert Bals Fund and Gothenburg Film Fund, and
Heart And Fire (Moz) Dir Sol de Carvalho Prod co Promarte Heart And Fire is the story of a man who struggles with a moral dilemma, as he faces the sale of his beloved cinema. Should he allow it to be transformed into a shopping mall and pocket the proceeds? Or perhaps change it into a cultural centre? To buy himself some time, he makes a documentary about the history of the cinema, which results in some unexpected consequences. “After years of disappointment with the corrupt politics of a country that destroyed the dreams of its youth — and its cinema — it seems easy, and may be wise, to just play the game and take personal advantage of the situation,” says Sol de Carvalho, of the moral question and
Sol de Carvalho
metaphor at the heart of the film. “The dilemma is marked by the history of a country that was a colony, then a socialist dream and now a wild, free-market society.” The $1.2m (¤910,250) narrative feature, of which $90,000 (¤65,250) is in place, is in development with principal photography due to start in July 2015. A former journalist, photographer and political activist against Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique, de Carvalho has made a name as one of the country’s leading socially committed film-makers. He set up the Promarte production company in an Art Deco cinema in Maputo in the early 1990s and has since produced documentaries and TV films, as well as the features Another Man’s Garden in 2006 and Criminal Impunity in 2013. Contact Sol de Carvalho solcarvalho53@gmail.com
Hot Comb
attends Open Doors to raise additional funds. “We would like to make connections with co-producers, sales agents and distributors,” says Kamya. “We are also looking to gain from the advice and support of the mentors we meet.” Contact Caroline Kamya ckamya@ivadproductions.com
Caroline Kamya
»
www.screendaily.com
August 2014 Screen International 5
LOCARNO OPEN DOORS
Inadelso Cossa
Kula: A Memory In Three Acts (Moz) Dir Inadelso Cossa Prod co 16mmfilmes This genre-bending feature from Mozambique’s Inadelso Cossa provides a wrenching insight into life under colonial rule for political prisoners incarcerated by the secret police in 1960s Mozambique. Cossa is filming a group of former prisoners, taking them back to the interrogation room where they were tormented and recreating scenes as they remember them. Kula was the name of one of the secret police’s hated brigades. “I don’t want to make a commercial docu-drama; I’m a vérité film-maker and I like to explore live and real raw material,” Cossa says. “I have to respect the memories of those noble men and give them a voice through my storytelling. The re-enactments will be in a meta-
I Am Not A Witch
I Am Not A Witch (Zam-Fr)
6 Screen International August 2014
phorical context and will also be a therapy to cure their traumas and find a reconciliation with life today.” Cossa is producing the project under his Mozambique-based 16mmfilmes banner, which specialises in auteur and verité cinema. Cossa’s debut feature was Xilunguine, The Promised Land in 2011. Although he has yet to see Joshua Oppenheimer’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Act Of Killing, Cossa says he is galvanised by its success. “In the developing countries where democracies and human rights are attacked all the time, people are losing their voices. Film-makers are becoming activists, searching for stories and telling them to the world.” Cossa has started shooting the $60,000 (¤45,000) project, which has received backing from the IDFA Bertha Fund, and is in Locarno to complete its funding. Contact Inadelso Cossa inadelsocossa@gmail.com
Territorial Pissings (S Afr)
Dir Rungano Nyoni Prod co Icreatefilms For her debut feature, writer-director Rungano Nyoni has written a lyrical drama from a child’s point of view about Shula, a nine-year-old girl at a ‘witch refugee camp’ in Zambia. Shula enjoys her talent and uses it to help others, despite having been cast out by her family. “I wanted to do a story around a talented child who is ostracised and whose talent isn’t fully realised,” says Nyoni of the project’s origins. “It coincided with a separate story I was looking into about witch camps. They both involved characters being rejected by society and living on the fringes.” Although there are no known witch camps in Zambia, they exist in other west African countries. “These camps are sort of places of asylum,” Nyoni explains. “Women who are accused of being witches seek sanctuary to escape condemnation.” Nyoni was selected to develop the script at Cannes’ Cinefondation, and has received backing from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund and support from the
Kula: A Memory In Three Acts
Dir Sibs Shongwe-La Mer Prod co Urucu Media
Rungano Nyoni
BFI’s NET.WORK programme. Her 2011 short, Mwansa The Great, won some 20 prizes and was nominated for a Bafta. Most recently, short Listen screened in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in May. “I want people to feel what it’s like to be considered an outsider,” says Nyoni of I Am Not A Witch, which is being co-produced with France’s Clandestine Films. “I am trying to avoid clichés, sensationalism and the ‘poor people of Africa’ story.” She adds: “It’s notoriously difficult to get a film made in somewhere like Zambia in a local language. So the fact Locarno is organising this is brilliant.” Contact Rungano Nyoni runganonyoni@gmail.com
Ask South African director Sibs Shongwe-La Mer about the inspiration for his debut feature Territorial Pissings and he gives a colourful answer: “[It was] growing up in the sleepy suburbs of Johannesburg and watching the ‘blessed’ generation of middle class, free South Africans I was born into turn from the postcard-prophesied golden children of the nation into coke fiends, dropouts and emotional cripples.” In the film, set on the anniversary of the violent Soweto youth uprising of June 16, 1976, a group of adolescent friends in Johannesburg are shocked by the live-streamed suicide of a young girl in her parents’ family home. Much of Territorial Pissings has already been shot, with some of its footage being shown at Venice Film Festival last year as a work in progress. “Since the nature of the feature is still in many ways a humble independent production, I’m hoping that in Locarno we’re able to continue the
Sibs Shongwe-La Mer
momentum we started in Venice a year ago, meeting new partners that can help us secure post-production support and world sales deals,” the director says. The film is produced by Elias Ribeiro of Urucu Media, who was introduced to Shongwe-La Mer through a mutual friend following Venice. “I felt the company would be a support to me creatively rather than trying to commercialise the project. Since our partnership, we have developed a much stronger piece and found great comfort in the production team behind this project,” the director says. Contact Elias Ribeiro, Urucu Media er@urucumedia.com
www.screendaily.com
The Mercy Of The Jungle (S Afr-Rwa-Bel) Dir Joel Karekezi Prod co Neon Rouge Production Development on The Mercy Of The Jungle is now complete and Rwandan film-maker Joel Karekezi will be in Locarno looking for production funding and a sales agent for the project. The film, about two Rwandan soldiers left behind in the jungle at the end of the Second Congo War in the late 1990s is based loosely on a story told to the director by his cousin. “The film is based on a historical event. It is a true story,” says Karakezi, who graduated from Cinecours film school in Canada in 2008. He received a Goteborg International Film Festival Fund grant for his first feature Imbabazi: The Pardon, which went on to win the Grand Nile prize at Luxor African Film Festival in March. “It is a little bit like a road movie,” the director explains of The Mercy Of The Jungle, which won the CFI award for most promising audiovisual project at Durban FilmMart. Karekezi hooked up with the film’s
The Train Of Salt And Sugar (Moz-Por) Dir Licinio de Azevedo Prod co Ukbar Filmes The Train Of Salt And Sugar is set in Mozambique in the middle of the civil war, which began in 1977. Its protagonists are passengers onboard a train that provides a lifeline to families and communities whose everyday existence is blighted by the conflict. “During the Mozambique civil war, I heard the train’s story, its passengers and its crazy journey. At the time I wanted to make a documentary about it, but I couldn’t find a way,” recalls director Licinio de Azevedo, a Brazilian former journalist who came to Mozambique in 1977. “When the war was over I did some research, travelled on that train and interviewed railways workers to write a fictional story for a book I published in 1997.” Now the story has metamorphosed into a film. De Azevedo, whose credits include the 2007 documentary Night Lodgers, is looking forward to attending Open Doors in Locarno. “It is very important to participate in a co-production forum, where participants have the same goals as we do, to make a film in countries with similar difficulties. I intend to achieve all possible things to benefit the project — ideas, knowledge, financing,
www.screendaily.com
producer, Aurélien Bodinaux of Brusselsbased Neon Rouge Production, after Cannes last year. “He really liked the project and decided to be the main producer,” says Karakezi, who has also attracted South African outfit A Breed Apart to come onboard as a co-producer. Karakezi is now in the process of beginning to cast the film, which is likely to be shot in French. Contact Neon Rouge Production aurelien@neonrouge.com
Unbalanced
Unbalanced (Gha) Dir P Sam Kessie Prod co Sankofa Pictures
Joel Karekezi
co-producers,” he says. The aim is to shoot in Mozambique, which de Azevedo describes as “a totally welcoming country to film production, in every sense”. The film is being produced through Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes — a co-producer on de Azevedo’s 2012 feature Virgin Margarida, which premiered at Toronto and was shown in 20 countries — together with Mozambique production company Ebano. Contact Pandora da Cunha Telles pandora@ukbarfilmes.com
“This opportunity with Open Doors is really, really great for me,” says rising Ghanian writer-director P Sam Kessie, who is hoping for script advice, development funding and possibly a co-writer for her debut feature, Unbalanced, in Locarno. She is also looking for a producer to work alongside her production company Sankofa Pictures. Unbalanced is about a middle-aged woman who gives up the chance of a career in theatre to marry an agricultural tycoon. When he begins to suffer from mental problems, her life threatens to unravel. The story is inspired by the director’s observations of women who have embraced family life even when it has meant abandoning their own dreams. “They go through this spiral of feeling
Licinio de Azevedo
alone, even though they are surrounded by so many people,” says Kessie, who hopes to shoot exteriors in Ghana but accepts that studio work may need to be conducted in South Africa. “I am hoping that after Locarno I can get people ready to help with the investment side and push towards production but I know that to do that I have to have a strong script,” she adds. Unbalanced has already been through the Talent Campus Durban (an offshoot of Berlinale Talents), where Kessie’s script was one of five selected for the Produire au Sud Script Studio workshop. She sees the project as a companion piece to some of her earlier projects including docu-fiction short The Samaritan and silent short The Last Summer. “My characters tend to be loners,” she reflects. “I think this is a little bit more mature in terms of its storytelling.” Contact P Sam Kessie s sam.kessie@gmail.com ■
P Sam Kessie
August 2014 Screen International 7
‘‘I
am a cinema lover,” says Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of Locarno Film Festival. “The people who attend Locarno share with me that same love of cinema.” As he puts the finishing touches to his second edition of the Swiss festival, following a decade in various programming roles at Locarno, the former journalist is firm in his aim to build on the festival’s heralded tradition of introducing bold and thought-provoking new voices and visions while celebrating more established directors. The three main sections, Concorso internazionale (International Competition), Concorso Cineasti del presente (Film-makers of the Present Competition) and the stunning alfresco showcase that is the Piazza Grande, all feature a mix of fresh faces and Locarno favourites. “Directors who were previously presented or discovered in Locarno are coming back, so we can look at their work and see how it has evolved,” says Chatrian. “That way we can also look at the development of cinema in general.” In the Piazza Grande section, he points to the international premieres of US independent director Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens’ Iceland-set comedy about ageing Land Ho! and Eran Riklis’s Dancing Arabs, about an Arab-Israeli boy sent to a Jewish boarding school. Katz’s Cold Weather screened in competition at Locarno in 2010 while Riklis’s The Syrian Bride and The Human Resources Manager won the festival’s audience award in 2004 and 2010, respectively. Cannes selection Clouds Of Sils Maria, directed by Olivier Assayas, one of Chatrian’s favourite film-makers and a jury chair in 2004, will also play in the Piazza Grande. As will the world premiere of Jean-Pierre Améris’ new film Marie Heurtin and the international premiere of Lasse Hallström’s The HundredFoot Journey, starring Helen Mirren. Personal touch “I am looking for a film in which I can find a personal touch, either the personal voice of the director or even the producer,” says Chatrian of how he chooses films. “Something that tells me something new about cinema.” The International Competition comprises 18 titles, mostly world premieres, and a blend of up-and-coming and more wellknown directors. Chatrian is thrilled to welcome back French director Paul Vecchiali, jury president in 1983, and Argentinian director Martin Rejtman, who was first at Locarno with Rapado in 1992. Vecchiali’s new film White Nights is based on a Fyodor Dostoevsky short story, while Rejtman is at the festival with surreal family drama Two Gun Shots. From Switzerland, documentary maker Fernand Melgar is presenting The Shelter, the third in his trilogy of films about immigration, which Chatrian hopes will spark
8 Screen International August 2014
Festival del film Locarno
Locarno carLo chatrian
Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of Locarno Film Festival
Independent spirit Carlo Chatrian, Locarno Film Festival’s artistic director, talks to Louise Tutt about new talent, old faces and maintaining the festival’s vision debate following Switzerland’s controversial introduction of an immigration quota. The artistic director is particularly excited by up-and-coming South Korean actordirector Park Jung-bum, whose film Alive is set in the Korean countryside. “It’s not the Korea we’re used to seeing in Korean cinema,” says Chatrian. Chatrian has landed the two current top prize winners of the Venice and Berlin film festivals to sit on the competition jury. Gianfranco Rosi, documentary director of the Golden Lion-winning Sacro GRA, will serve as jury president. He is joined by Diao Yinan, director of Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice, alongside German director Thomas Arslan and actors Connie Nielsen from Denmark and Alice Braga from Brazil. “For me, it’s important to have a director heading the jury as the films we’re selecting can be very peculiar, so I need a well-honed eye,” Chatrian says. The more discovery-oriented Film-makers of the Present Competition, reserved to first and second features, embraces a similarly diverse range of titles, including Colombian
‘It’s important to have a director heading the jury as the films we’re selecting can be very peculiar, so I need a well-honed eye’ Carlo Chatrian, Locarno Film Festival
director Oscar Ruiz Navia’s Los Hongos, a fiction film about two graffiti artists. Songs From The North is a documentary by North Korea-born, US-based film-maker Yoo Soon-mi, who journeys home to see her parents. It offers a rare glimpse into normal family life under the dictatorship. Chatrian points to US indie film-maker Charles Poekel as another name to investigate. Poekel’s debut film Christmas, Again is a drama about a Christmas-tree seller in New York City. “What touches me about the film is that it makes a big city feel like a small village,” says Chatrian. “It’s something I haven’t seen before.” The Film-makers of the Present jury will award a main prize of $45,000 (chf40,000). The jury is headed by Syrian director Ossama Mohammed, presently exiled in Paris, whose documentary about the civil war in his country Silvered Water, Syria Self Portrait is screening in the jurors’ films section. “Locarno is known for its freedom and independence. It’s important for me that I carry this on,” says Chatrian. “Mohammed’s s film is one of the best I’ve seen all year.” n
www.screendaily.com
SCREENINGS Friday | Aug 8th | 9:00 p.m. Kursaal theater | PRESS Saturday | Aug 9th | 9:30 p.m. Piazza Grande | PREMIERE
HEAD OFFICE Gruenwalder Weg 28d / D-82041 Oberhaching / Phone +49 89 673469 - 828 beta@betacinema.com / www.betacinema.com
LOCARNO INDUSTRY DAYS
Industry Days steps up Locarno’s fifth annual Industry Days (Aug 9-11) will feature an increasingly proactive Swiss presence, as well as a more international approach with STEP IN. Martin Blaney reports
T
he Swiss film industry may have suffered a blow earlier this year when it was shut out of Creative Europe (the European Commission’s framework programme for support to the cultural and media sectors) as a result of Switzerland’s anti-immigration stance, but for Locarno’s head of industry Nadia Dresti it is business as usual. “We may be out of Europe but we’re still a strong festival,” says Dresti who will oversee the festival’s Industry Days, which launched in 2010 and will this year run from August 9-11. “The people we work with in the industry still want to invest in Locarno and still want to come to Locarno.” In addition to its annual industry screenings at Locarno’s Rialto Theatre — which also serves as the festival’s Industry Home Base for international buyers and sellers — Industry Days will host the third edition of its STEP IN initiative, which was launched in 2012 to serve as a platform to discuss new strategies for the distribution and exhibition of films in the light of the shift to digital. While initially focusing on central and eastern Europe, STEP IN widened its scope in 2013 to include other European territories. “Last year, we opened up more to Europe and, in 2014, we’re going one step further and becoming more international,” Dresti says. STEP IN will kick off with two interactive presentations of the Brazilian and South Afri-
12 Screen International August 2014
can distribution and exhibition markets with key players from the two regions including André Strum (Cinema do Brasil), distributor Jean-Thomas Bernardini (Imovision), producer Michael Auret of Spier Films, and Clive Fisher from exhibitor Ster-Kinekor Theatres, reflecting the subjects of this year’s Carte Blanche and Open Doors programmes. UK industry consultant Peter Buckingham of Sampomedia will offer a keynote speech. For the brainstorming part of STEP IN, 60 to 70 participants — distributors, sales agents, cinema owners and film funders — will be divided into small working groups moderated by industry figures such as Eurimages’ Roberto Olla and Eugene Hernandez of Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Each group will have a specific topic to discuss around the state of arthouse cinema and will be expected to deliver their conclusions in a general discussion. “This year, we want to go into more detail on VoD, day-and-date releases and multiplatform releases,” Dresti says of the event. “We have been developing these discussion topics in close co-operation with our partners Europa Cinemas, Europa Distribution and Europa International, longtime associate Festival Scope, and for the first time the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) to give the authorial perspective from the side of the film directors.” “We believe distribution is a big issue,” adds Locarno’s artistic director Carlo Cha-
trian. “More and more films are being made but it’s very difficult to see them properly in a cinema. We will try to take the discussion on from last year and involve more people who are distributing films in a different way.”
‘Last year we opened up more to Europe and this year we are becoming more international’ Nadia Dresti, Locarno Film Festival
Swiss strength New for this year is STEP IN.ch, a networking event that takes place ahead of the main STEP IN event. Launched in collaboration with the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, Swiss Films and MEDIA Desk Suisse, the event will bring together European distributors and sales agents, who have acquired Swiss films in the past, with leading players from the Swiss industry such as Hélene Cardis from distributor Pathé Films. Dresti hopes the new event will help to forge international partnerships, especially in the light of the Creative Europe shut out that came on the back of a Swiss referendum in February, in which the country voted to introduce immigration quotas. “Locarno is increasingly becoming a platform for the industry to raise its voice and will now develop a role as the place where the Swiss industry can meet its international partners,” Dresti says. This year’s Locarno Film Festival will also see the Swiss industry being more proactive in forging international contacts thanks to a series of initiatives planned by the promotion agency Swiss Films under its new CEO Catherine Ann Berger. As well as being a
www.screendaily.com
Festival del film Locarno
STEP IN has widened its remit to become a more internationally focused initiative
partner of STEP IN.ch, Swiss Films will be organising business lunches to bring together Swiss professionals and international guests, and manning a dedicated Swiss Films Industry Desk in the Industry Home Base to distribute information about new local films. Berger will also moderate a Swiss Films Talk that will involve leading international film critics giving their take on the current state of Swiss film-making. Latin flavour The fourth edition of the festival’s Carte Blanche section will focus on Brazil (see page 14). It is being led by a new member of the team, Markus Duffner, who served as programme director of July’s VOICES film festival in Vologda, Russia. “Cinema do Brasil and ANCINE will bring a delegation of film-makers from Brazil,” Dresti explains. “We have invited some buyers and Sao Paulo International Film Festival’s programme director Renata de Almeida and Kleber Mendonca Filho, director of Festival Janela Internacional de Cinema in Recife. We are expecting more than 50 Brazilian professionals.” Duffner will also be busy with another new venture, Carte Blanche Extra, meeting the demand from producers who have presented projects in Carte Blanche in the past and would like to return to Locarno Film Festival. This year will see Cinema Chile send three Chilean producers, while Colombia will be represented by the best projects in development from Bogata Audiovisual Market held in July. International reach For the first time last year, Europa Cinemas chose to award its coveted label at the Swiss festival, putting it alongside other Europa Cinemas Label festivals Cannes, Berlin, Ven-
www.screendaily.com
‘Locarno is a very important platform for us to have a dialogue about the industry’ Daphné Kapfer, Europa International
ice and Karlovy Vary. Europa Cinemas will be back this year with a jury of Europa Cinemas members — Clive Fisher (Ster-Kinekor Theatres), Jon Barrenechea (Picturehouse, UK), André Ceuterik (Cinema Plaza Art, Belgium) and Gosia Kuzdra (Kino Muza, Poland) — who will be awarding the Europa Cinemas Label to a European film from either the International Competition or the Film-makers of the Present Competition. Meanwhile, Europa Distribution and Europa International will once again bring their member distributors and sales agents to Locarno. “STEP IN offers a platform to brainstorm and discuss the future challenges of distribution and promotion,” says Daphné Kapfer, managing director of Europa International, which will be bringing more than 20 of its member sales companies to attend the festival’s Industry Days. “Locarno is a very important platform for
us to have a dialogue about the industry,” Kapfer adds. Kristina Trapp, CEO of EAVE producers training programme, is equally enthusiastic about STEP IN as an interdisciplinary exchange platform and promises even more of a Latin American flavour to Industry Days in 2015, when the Luxembourg-based programme will return to the festival with its Puentes — Europe/Latin America producers workshop. “It’s a very natural partnership — the Argentinian hit film Tanta Agua by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge was, for example, discovered in Locarno at Open Doors and then developed through Puentes. This shows that we are on the same track and that Puentes complements the festival in an organic way,” adds Trapp, who is hopeful that Switzerland will find its way back into the Creative Europe programme. “The loyal involvement of Locarno’s long-standing European partners such as EAVE shows the relevance of the festival and its industry section within the European festival and coproduction market landscape.” Industry academy While the Creative Europe crisis may have stalled some the more ambitious plans for this edition, Dresti has managed to launch a pilot project for a proposed Industry Academy, along similar lines to the existing Filmmaker and Critics Academies in Locarno. “If you want to be a director or producer, you can go to film school. But what do you do if you want to become a distributor, or a sales agent, or an exhibitor?” Dresti says of the proposed academy, which would see around nine aspiring distributors/sales agents/exhibitors from Switzerland and the rest of Europe coming together to live under one roof and gain first-hand insights into the working lives and problems of their fellow s academy participants. ■
Alejandro Fernandez Almendras (second right) won last year’s Carte Blanche award
August 2014 Screen International 13
locarno carte Blanche
Brazil in the spotlight For its fourth edition, Locarno’s Carte Blanche showcases the country of the moment — Brazil. Geoffrey Macnab reports
I
n the year of the football World Cup and as momentum builds towards the Olympic Games in 2016, it is fitting that Brazil should be the subject of the fourth edition of Locarno’s Carte Blanche, the festival’s competitive sidebar that focuses on films in post-production from a specific region. After Colombia, Mexico and Chile, this is the fourth and final Latin American country to be showcased at the festival; next year the focus will move to Asia. As Locarno industry head Nadia Dresti acknowledges, Brazil has a thriving film and TV sector that receives strong state support. In July 2014 the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, announced a comprehensive $450m state-aid package for the film industry, called Brazil Of All Screens. But while foreign partners are eager to co-produce with Brazil, the majority of the territory’s films are not distributed abroad, which explains the rush among Brazilian producers to apply to Carte Blanche, whose main aim is to showcase projects to international distributors, sales agents and festival programmers. Promotional body Cinema do Brasil received 45 applications from projects in post-production when it held a call for entries to Carte Blanche. Out of that 45, seven Brazilian features and documentaries from five different states are headed to Locarno. “Locarno has a special audience and the part of the industry that we believe might be interested in Brazilian cinema these days,” says Cinema do Brasil’s chairman Andre Sturm, who describes Carte Blanche as an “excellent entrance into the international world”. Each of this year’s seven projects will be introduced by either the producer or the director, with several key figures from the Brazilian film industry, including Sara Silveira from Dezenove, Fabiano Gullane from Gullane Filmes and writer/director Camilo Cavalcante also set to attend. Adding to the mix, Brazilian actress Alice Braga is sitting on the international competition jury of the festival. Carte Blanche offers a prize of $11,000 (chf10,000) to the producer of the winning project, which will be selected by a jury made up of Christian Jeune (head of Cannes’ film office and deputy general delegate), Eva
14 Screen International August 2014
O Touro
Nise Da Silveira
Que Horas Ela Volta?
TiTles selecTed for carTe Blanche ■ aspirantes Dir: Ives Rosenfeld ■ Beco
Dir: Camilo Cavalcante ■ nise Da Silveira Dir: Roberto Berliner ■ Ponto Zero Dir: Jose Pedro Goulart
■ Que
horas ela Volta? Dir: Anna
Muylaert ■ o touro Dir: Larissa Figueiredo ■ Xucro
— oracao Do amor Selvagem Dir: Chico Faganello
Morsch Kihn (industry department director and selection board, Cine en Construccion — Cinelatino, Rencontres de Toulouse) and Vincenzo Bugno (manager of Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund). The initiative is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. the distribution conundrum While there have already been several festival hits to come out of Carte Blanche’s three editions to date — Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza’s Choco, for example, went on to screen in Berlinale’s Panorama, while Enrique Rivero’s Mexican feature Mai Morire screened at Rome among others — relatively few have been picked up for international sales.
‘Locarno has a special audience’ andre sturm, cinema do Brasil
Those that have include Chilean director Alejandro Fernandez’s To Kill A Man, winner of last year’s Carte Blanche prize, which was acquired by leading Spanish sales outfit Film Factory, while Choco was picked up for sales by Memento’s sister company Artscope. “When you buy a European film, you get support from MEDIA but when you buy a Brazilian film, you don’t get money from any place,” says Dresti, adding: “It means the financial risk is not covered at all for distributors to get these kinds of film. If they don’t see the commercial potential, they don’t take the risk.” Dresti points to the paradox that there is “more support” from Europe for producing films in Latin America (through L’aide aux cinémas du monde, the Hubert Bals Fund and other such initiatives) than there is for ensuring these films are actually seen. Hence, the festival is also holding a focus on the Brazilian market alongside Carte Blanche, at which industry delegates will be able to learn more about the challenges facing the Brazilian industry. It is a sign of the event’s success that Chile (the subject of Carte Blanche last year) is continuing its relationship with Locarno, with promotional body Cinema Chile set to bring three producers with new projects to the festival. During Industry Days, selected sales companies and buyers will be invited to a lunchtime meeting with these producers. Meanwhile, relations are also being maintained with Colombia. The three winners of Bogota Audiovisual Market will be invited to Locarno. Next year, the Brazilians will also be back. Dresti says: “It means that, if everything works out well, we’re going to have a delegas tion of 12 Latin American producers.” n
www.screendaily.com
C
M
J
CM
MJ
CJ
MJ
N
LOCARNO PIAZZA GRANDE AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
The hottest tickets in town The films set to get audiences talking in both the Piazza Grande and International Competition sections at the 67th Locarno Film Festival are profiled by Sarah Cooper and Andreas Wiseman Piazza Grande A HITMAN’S SOLITUDE BEFORE THE SHOT Ger Dir Florian Mischa Böder World premiere This black comedy from the director of The Austrian Method stars Benno Fürmann as a hitman who gets his first job at the worst possible moment. Contact Picture Tree International www.picturetree-international.com
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA Fr-Ger-Switz Dir Olivier Assayas French director Assayas’s Cannes Competition title stars Juliette Binoche as a fading actress alongside Kristen Stewart as her assistant and Chloe Grace Moretz (pictured) as an up-and-coming young star. Contact MK2 International mk2.com
A LA VIE Fr Dir Jean-Jacques Zilbermann World premiere Julie Depardieu, Suzanne Clément and Johanna Ter Steege star as former deportees from Auschwitz who are reunited 15 years after the end of the war in this film by French writerdirector Zilbermann (Bad Spelling). Contact Le Pacte www.le-pacte.com
Dancing Arabs
set in the 19th century and based on the true story of a 14-year-old deaf and blind girl who receives help in a nunnery. Contact Indie Sales Company www.indiesales.eu
THE BEACHES OF AGNES Fr PAUSE Switz
Dir Agnes Varda This autobiographical 2008 documentary sees French director Agnes Varda, a recipient of Locarno’s Pardo d’onore Swisscom this year, revisiting places from her past. Contact Ciné-Tamaris www. cine-tamaris.fr
DANCING ARABS Isr-Fr-Ger Dir Eran Riklis Riklis, whose acclaimed work includes The Human Resources Manager, returns with this adaptation of Sayed Kashua’s novel about an Arab boy whose parents send him to a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem. Contact The Match Factory www.the-match-factory.com
GERONIMO Fr Dir Tony Gatlif This update of West Side Story follows a social educator trying to prevent a war between the
Lucy
Geronimo
families of an illicit couple. The film premiered as a Special Screening in Cannes. Contact Les Films du Losange www.filmsdulosange.fr
LOVE ISLAND Croatia-Ger-Switz-Bos Herz LAND HO! US-Ice Dir Aaron Katz, Martha Stephens US indie directors Katz (Cold Weather) and Stephens (Passenger Pigeons, Pilgrim Song) team up for this buddy road movie about two former brothers-in-law who take a holiday to Iceland. It world premiered at Sundance. Contact Sony Pictures Classics www.sonypicturesclassics.com
THE LEOPARD It-Fr Dir Luchino Visconti Italian director Visconti’s classic The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) stars Burt Gattopardo Lancaster as an
(Left) Land Ho!
16 Screen International August 2014
ageing aristocrat trying to protect the fortunes of his family. It won the Palme d’Or in 1963. Contact Titanus www.titanus.it
Dir Jasmila Zbanic World premiere Berlin’s Golden Bear winner in 2006 with Grbavica, Bosnian director Zbanic offers this comedy about a couple holidaying in Croatia who both fall in love with the same woman. Contact The Match Factory www.the-match-factory.com
LUCY Fr Dir Luc Besson Opening film Scarlett Johansson plays a drug mule who gains superhuman powers in Besson’s sci-fi thriller. Morgan Freeman co-stars. Contact Universal Pictures International www.universalpicturesinternational.com
MARY’S STORY Fr Dir Jean-Pierre Améris World premiere The latest film from Cannes award-winning director Améris, Mary’s Story (Marie Heurtin) is
Dir Mathieu Urfer World premiere Baptiste Gilliéron and Julia Faure star in this comedy about a country-music loving telemarketer and lawyer living together. It marks Urfer’s feature debut. Contact Picture Tree International www.picturetree-international.com
SCHWEIZER HELDEN Switz Dir Peter Luisi World premiere Swiss director Luisi’s latest film centres around a divorced housewife (Esther Gemsch) who tries to win the attention of her family by staging the story of William Tell with a group of asylum seekers. Contact Spotlight Media Productions AG www.spotlightmedia.ch
TOUR DE FORCE Ger Dir Christian Zübert World premiere German director Zübert’s comedy drama Tour De Force (Hin Und Weg) stars Florian David Fitz as a man on a mission to reach a euthanasia clinic in Belgium while on an annual bike ride. Contact Beta Cinema www.betacinema.com
THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY US Dir Lasse Hallström Helen Mirren stars in this cross-cultural culinary story directed by Chocolat and Salmon Fishing In The Yemen director Hallström. Contact Mister Smith Entertainment www.mistersmithent.com
www.screendaily.com
International Competition
PERFIDIA It Dir Bonifacio Angius Perfidia revolves around the complicated relationship between a father and his son, and stars Stefano Deffenu and Mario Olivieri. This is Angius’s second feature following Sa Grascia. Contact Movie Factory SRL www.moviefactorysrl.com
A BLAST (Gre-Ger-Neth) Dir Syllas Tzoumerkas Tzoumerkas, the director of Greek thriller Homeland, returns with the story of an antiheroine on the run, rebelling against an envious mother, a mentally challenged but demanding sister, an absent husband and a hostile country. Contact Homemade Films homemadefilms.gr
Perfidia
Listen Up Philip
ALIVE S Kor
GYEONGJU S Kor
Dir Park Jung-bum Jung-cheol works through the bitter winter in a soybean paste factory, where he dreams of travelling to the warm Philippines. Actor-writerdirector Park stars, as he did in his well-received debut The Journals Of Musan. Contact Finecut www.finecut.co.kr
Dir Zhang Lu Grain In Ear and Desert Dream director Zhang returns with a comedy romance about the unexpected journeys and encounters that befall a professor who returns to his homeland of South Korea after a long absence. Contact M-Line Distribution www.mline-distribution.com
CURE — THE LIFE OF ANOTHER Switz-Cro-Bos Herz Dir Andrea Staka Eight years after winning the Golden Leopard for drama Fräulein, Switzerland’s Staka returns to directing with a thriller that sees two 14-year-old girls retreat to a secluded beach beneath the cliffs of Dubrovnik. Fraulein stars Mirjana Karanovic and Marija Skaricic also return. Contact Okofilm Productions www.okofilm.com
FIDELIO, L’ODYSSEE D’ALICE Fr Dir Lucie Borleteau Ariane Labed, Melvil Poupaud and Anders Danielsen Lie star in the story of a 30-year-old female mechanic on board a cargo ship. Firsttime feature film-maker Borleteau was a script collaborator on Claire Denis’ White Material. Contact Why Not Productions contact@whynotproductions.fr
HORSE MONEY Port
Cure — The Life Of Another
THE FOOL Rus Dir Yury Bykov Producer Aleksey Uchitel renews his collaboration with The Major writer-director Bykov on The Fool (Durak), a drama about a man fighting to save the inhabitants of a dormitory at risk of collapse. Contact Rock Films rockfilm.ru
FROM WHAT IS BEFORE Phil Dir Lav Diaz Diaz’s Norte, The End Of History follow-up is about a boy living in a small community in the Philippines. Contact Sine Olivia Pilipinas sineoliviapilipinas.wix.com
Dir Pedro Costa Costa, a Golden Leopard nominee for In Vanda’s Room (2000) and Memories (2007), returns with Horse Money (Cavalo Dinheiro), his first feature since 2009 music-documentary Change Nothing. Contact OPTEC Sociedade Optica Tecnica www.optec.pt
THE IRON MINISTRY China-US Dir JP Sniadecki World premiere US-born, China-based film-maker Sniadecki’s latest documentary, following Yumen in 2013, centres around the history of China’s train system. Sniadecki’s Foreign Parts (2010) won the best first feature and special jury prizes at Locarno. Contact Jianghu Productions www.jianghuproductions.com
LISTEN UP PHILIP US
TWO GUN SHOTS Arg-Chile-Ger-Neth Dir Martin Rejtman 16-year-old Mariano finds a gun in his house and, in a thoughtless impulse, shoots himself twice. But he survives. Two Gun Shots (Dos
Disparos) director Rejtman, from Argentina, is a two-time Golden Leopard nominee for Rapado (1992) and The Magic Gloves (2003). Contact Ruda Cine www.rudacine.com.ar
Dir Alex Ross Perry This dark US comedy about a self-destructive writer world premiered at Sundance Film Festival and stars Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce and Krysten Ritter. Contact The Match Factory www.the-match-factory.com
THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE Arg Dir Matias Pineiro World premiere The third film in Argentinean director Pineiro’s on-going take on Shakespeare’s comedies is a re-imagining of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Contact Universidad Del Cine ucine.edu.ar
LA SAPIENZA Fr-It Dir Eugene Green World premiere Fabrizio Rongione stars as a disillusioned architect who sets out to rediscover the motivations that first pushed him to join the profession. Green’s films Le Nom Du Feu and Les Ponts Des Arts screened at Locarno in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Contact La Sarraz Pictures www.lasarraz.com
THE SHELTER Switz Dir Fernand Melgar World premiere The latest documentary from Swiss director Melgar (Special Flight), The Shelter (l’Abri) is set in an emergency shelter for the homeless in Lausanne. Contact CAT&Docs www.catndocs.com
VENTOS DE AGOSTO Bra Dir Gabriel Mascaro World premiere Brazilian director Mascaro’s feature follows a young girl who has left the big city to live in a small seaside village. Contact FiGa Films figafilms.com
WHITE NIGHTS ON THE PIER Fr Dir Paul Vecchiali World premiere Pascal Cervo stars in White Nights On The Pier (Nuits Blanches Sur La Jetée), the latest feature from prolific French film-maker Vecchiali. s Contact Shellac www.shellac-altern.org ■
Ventos De Agosto
www.screendaily.com
August 2014 Screen International 17
Locarno speciaL honorees
Honour bound Locarno’s 2014 edition will pay tribute to an eclectic mix of legendary film-makers, actors and producers. Screen takes a look at the recipients. Profiles by Mark Adams, Sarah Cooper and Louise Tutt
‘‘T
he press understandably pays a lot of attention to new films and to stars. But it’s important to me to have an ongoing dialogue with the cinema of the past because when you screen it, it becomes the cinema of the present,” says Locarno’s artistic director Carlo Chatrian, who curated the festival’s famed retrospectives before taking over the top job, so has a particular affinity to the section. Indeed, since taking over the helm from Olivier Pere, Chatrian has intensified Locarno’s retrospective work, last year paying tribute, among others, to German film-maker Werner Herzog, Italian director Sergio Castellitto and Hollywood legend George Cukor. He puts this decision in part to Locarno’s position in the festival calendar. “It’s a good moment in the year. Festivals like Venice and Cannes do pay attention to [classic films] but the new films are so important that it’s impossible to have this kind of dialogue. “I am proud of the way last year people watched a George Cukor film and then went to watch a new short and found something in common between them,” adds Chatrian, who has once again chosen an eclectic mix of honorees for this year’s edition — Italian studios Titanus, French director Agnes Varda, Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown, Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi, Spanish film-maker Victor Erice and actors Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mia Farrow, Juliette Binoche and Jean-Pierre Léaud. “This year we have lots of other very wellknown actors and directors attending Locarno. But at the same time it’s very timely to pay tribute to [someone like] Victor Erice, whose name may not ring a bell to many people but whose films are so strong. It’s this balance that matters to me,” he adds. Chatrian also sees it as his duty to introduce the younger generation to the great film-makers of the past. “This ongoing dialogue is really important because cinema is a young art but with an important history,” he adds. Titanus studios The famed Italian production studio Titanus is the subject of this year’s major Retrospective. Titanus, founded by Gustavo Lombardo in 1904, is still active today. Chatrian says: “Titanus effectively had a hand in virtually the entire history of Italian cinema. To explore the world of Titanus is to explore
18 Screen International August 2014
Giuseppe Tornatore’s L’Ultimo Gattopardo (2010). The festival will also present a roundtable discussion on August 12 about Titanus, chaired by Sergio M Germani and Roberto Turigliatto, and with Bernard Eisenschitz, Gian Luca Farinelli, Chris Fujiwara, Miguel Marias, Emiliano Morreale and Simone Starace. agnes Varda Belgium-born director Agnes Varda will be only the second woman ever to receive the festival’s Pardo d’onore Swisscom (honorary Leopard), following Ukrainian director Kira Muratova in 1994. Locarno’s tribute to Varda will include screenings of a selection of her films including Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962), The Creatures (1966), Vagabond (1985) and The Beaches Of Agnes (2008) as well as five episodes of TV series Agnes De Ci De La Varda (2011). She will also take part in an onstage conversation during the festival. “Varda reminds us that film is a creative act that implicates the subject behind the camera — or directing it — both emotionally and politically,” Chatrian says of the director, who started out as a theatre photographer before making the move into directing with her first feature, La Pointe Courte (1955). An important part of the French New Wave movement, Varda has gone on to receive many accolades, including a lifetime achievement award at Cannes in 2010.
that crucible of popular and auteur cinema as they intersect and feed each other.” Selections in the Retrospective will include a Piazza Grande screening of Luchino Visconti’s 1963 masterpiece The Leopard; plus Charles Krauss’s Casa Mia, Donna Mia (1923); Raffaello Matarazzo’s Nobody’s Children (1952); Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women (1960); Dario Argento’s The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970); Valerio Zurlini’s Indian Summer (1972) and
(Top) Agnes Varda; (above) Garrett Brown with Stanley Kubrick on the set of The Shining
Garrett Brown Oscar-winning cinematography legend Garrett Brown, creator of the Steadicam, the camera support system that allows film-makers to shoot fluid movement while retaining a stable image and so changed cinematography, will receive Locarno’s Vision Award — Nescens. Talking about the decision to honour the US craftsman, who is expected to attend the festival, Chatrian described him as “one of those artists who has enabled cinema to take a giant step forward, and for reality to be explored in a new way”, adding, “Choosing Garrett Brown as the recipient of this award is not only to pay tribute to an invention but also to the man behind it. A brilliant cameraman, Brown’s filmography contains so many titles that constitute much of the cinematic heritage of the last 40 years.” Brown, who won an Oscar in 1977 for »
www.screendaily.com
Locarno speciaL honorees
Mia Farrow
film. The tribute will include an onstage conversation with the director. Festival-goers will be able to see Erice’s first feature, The Spirit Of The Beehive (1973), which is considered one of the masterpieces of Spanish cinema. Also screening will be El Sur (1983) and his most recent feature, Dream Of Light (1992), almost a working diary of the artist Antonio Lopez and his attempts to paint a quince tree.
Juliette Binoche
inventing the Steadicam, worked on classics such as Rocky, Return Of The Jedi, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and The Shining, a film designed to exploit the invention’s full artistic potential. Directors with whom Brown has developed close working relationships include Warren Beatty, Jonathan Demme, Frank Oz, John Schlesinger, George Miller, Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg. nansun shi Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi will receive the festival’s Premio Raimondo Rezzonico for best independent producer. She has made a major contribution to the international success of Hong Kong cinema through her work with Cinema City studio and subsequently with Film Workshop, which she co-founded with producer and director Tsui Hark in 1984. Her filmography includes John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, Tsui’s Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame and Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate as well as Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s classic 2002 film Infernal Affairs, later adapted by Martin Scorsese as The Departed. While in Locarno, Shi will participate in a public discussion with the festival audience and a selection of her films will also be screened. “Nansun Shi had the ability to shepherd the careers of a wide range of directors, and to pursue a personal trajectory within the constantly changing world of Hong Kong cinema,” Chatrian says. Victor erice Acclaimed Spanish film-maker Victor Erice will receive this year’s Pardo alla carriera award for his extraordinary contribution to
20 Screen International August 2014
armin Mueller-stahl The festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award — Parmigiani will go to German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl, who will take part in a public conversation during the festival, moderated by Ralf Schenk. Films to be screened include Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Lola; George Sluizer’s Utz, for which Mueller-Stahl won the Silver Bear for best actor at the Berlinale in 1992; and Scott Hicks’ 1996 film Shine, for which he received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Mia Farrow US actress Mia Farrow follows in the footsteps of Faye Dunaway, who was the recipient of Locarno’s first Leopard Club award last year. The festival says Farrow’s work “has left a mark on the collective imagination”. She will take part in a public conversation and present a selection of her films.
Nansun Shi
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Victor Erice
Juliette Binoche French actress Juliette Binoche will receive the festival’s Excellence Award Moët & Chandon. Binoche will take part in a conversation with Chatrian at the Spazio Cinema, while two of Binoche’s most iconic films, Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Blue (1993) and Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy (2010) will also be screened. The festival will also screen Olivier Assayas’s Clouds Of Sils Maria. Jean-pierre Léaud French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud will also receive a Pardo alla carriera award this year. The festival will screen Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin, Francois Truffaut’s Two English Girls, Jean Eustache’s The Mother And The Whore and Bertrand Bonello’s The s Pornographer. n
www.screendaily.com
Locarno 2014
A Hitman’s Solitude A Hitman’s Solitude A Hitman’s Solitude Before the Shot Before the Shot NO MISSION. NO LIFE. AND Shot THEN SHE CAME ALONG. Before the NO MISSION. NO LIFE. AND THEN SHE CAME ALONG. NO MISSION. NO LIFE. AND THEN SHE CAME ALONG. Director: Florian Mischa Böder Director: FlorianFürmann, Mischa Böder Cast: Benno Mavie Hörbiger, Director: Florian Mischa Böder Cast: BennoRoth, Fürmann, Mavie Hörbiger, Wolf Erik Madsen Cast: Benno Fürmann,Madsen Mavie Hörbiger, Wolf Roth, Production: HUPE Film-Erik und Fernsehproduktion Wolf Roth, Production: HUPE Film-Erik undMadsen Fernsehproduktion Status: Completed Production: Completed HUPE Film- und Fernsehproduktion Status: Delivery: Winter 2014 Status: Completed Delivery: Winter 2014 Delivery: Winter 2014
Screening Screening Screening WORLD PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE
Press Screening: Thursday WORLD PREMIEREThursday Press Screening: World Premiere: Friday Press Screening: Thursday World Premiere: Friday Industry Screening: Saturday World Premiere: Industry Screening: Friday Saturday Industry Screening: Saturday
/ // / // // /
Aug 7th Aug 8th 7th Aug Aug 8th 7th Aug Aug 9th Aug Aug 8th 9th Aug 9th
/ // / // // /
23:00 23:00 23:30 23:00 23:30 14:30 23:30 14:30 14:30
/ // // / // /
Kursaal KursaalGrande Piazza Kursaal Piazza2Grande Rialto Piazza Rialto 2Grande Rialto 2
Pause Pause WHEN THE STARS ARE SHAKING Pause WHEN THE STARS ARE SHAKING
WHEN THE STARS ARE SHAKING Director: Mathieu Urfer Director: Mathieu Urfer Cast: Baptiste Gilliéron, Julia Faure, Director: Mathieu Urfer Cast: Baptiste Gilliéron, Julia Faure, André Wilms, Nils Althaus, Cast: Baptiste Gilliéron, Julia Faure, André Wilms, Nils Althaus, Roland Vouilloz, Nicole Letuppe André Wilms, Nils Althaus, Roland Vouilloz, Nicole Letuppe Production: Box Productions Roland Vouilloz, Nicole Letuppe Production: Box Productions Status: Completed Production: Completed Box Productions Status: Delivery: Winter 2014 Status: Completed Delivery: Winter 2014 Delivery: Winter 2014
Screening Screening Screening WORLD PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE
Industry Screening: Monday WORLD PREMIEREMonday Industry Screening: Press Screening: Wednesday Industry Screening: Monday Press Screening: Wednesday World Premiere: Thursday Press Screening: Wednesday World Premiere: Thursday World Premiere: Thursday
/ // // / // /
Aug 11th Aug Aug 11th 13th Aug Aug 11th 13th Aug 14th Aug Aug 13th 14th Aug 14th
/ // // / // /
11:30 11:30 21:00 11:30 21:00 21:30 21:00 21:30 21:30
Attending from August 8 - 16
Andreas Rothbauer / Mobile: +49.151 - 54 458 921 / E-Mail: andreas@picturetree-international.com Yuanyuan Sui / Mobile: +49.151 - 50 617 388 / E-Mail: yuan@picturetree-international.com
Head Office
Picture Tree International / Zur Börse 12 / 10247 Berlin / Germany Phone: +49.30 - 4208 248 - 0 / E-Mail: pti@picturetree-international.com / www. picturetree-international.com
/ // // / // /
Rialto 2 Rialto Kursaal2 Rialto Kursaal2 Piazza Grande Kursaal Piazza Grande Piazza Grande