17/04/2003

Pre-production has begun on an ambitious project entitled De l’Europe – About Europe. The brainchild of French production company, Zor Films, this will be an ensemble film of seven short films about what it means to be European by seven directors. The Franco-Icelandic Solveig Anspach (Haut les coeurs), Italy’s Marco Bechis and Roberta Torre (Angela), the United Kingdom’s Jasmin Dizdar, France’s Emmanuel Finkiel, Austria’s Jessica Hausner and Spain’s Imanol Uribe.

The film is scheduled to go into production from November 2003 to April 2004, with each director working in a different country from their homeland. Zor Films announced they were holding a competition for the screenplays and after examining some forty real life events that took place in Europe over the last 20 years, they selected 14 treatments from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Romania and Sweden. Each of the directors was allowed to choose the subject they wished to film.

The project is a pan-European co-production with Spain, France and Germany and will be made with a Euros2.3m budget and the support of Franco-German TV network, Arte, France’s CNC and SACD. The film will be released theatrically and aired on television.

(Translated from French)