28/04/2014 - The French company will sell a surprising Ukrainian film on the Croisette, selected in competition during Critics’ Week

The positive streak continues for French international sales company Alpha Violet, which will sell another film in competition during a major film festival. Founded at the beginning of 2012, the company headed by Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato will this time be behind sales for The Tribe by Myroslav Slaboskpytskiy, which will go through its international premiere in competition during 53^rd Critics’ Week (May 15-23), which will be taking place within the context of the 67^th Cannes Film Festival.

Well-known for his shorts (Deafness and Diagnosis in competition in Berlin, Nuclear Waste winner of the Pardo d'argento in Locarno in 2012), the Ukrainian filmmaker is taking his first feature length film steps with a film, which has already been much talked about, paying homage to silent cinema with deaf and mute actors. 

“I have lived in Ukraine and have worked at the Kiev festival,” Virginie Devesa told Cineuropa. “I, together with my company and Keiko, we know Myroslav’s work well. We saw the first images from The Tribe in Moscow last October and we saw five more minutes of it in Warsaw. It is a film, which only features sign language, but where everything is understood. It is a story of love and hate, with a mafia clan and a man who does everything to save the woman he loves. It was truly love at first sight for us.”

During the Cannes film market, Violet will screen Daughters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] from German Maria Speth (presented in Berlin in the Forum section – read the review), Mateo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Maria Gamboa (co-production between Colombia and France via Ciné Sud Promotion – recent winner of two awards in Miami) and 28 by Prasanna Jayakody (international premiere in Rotterdam).

To be noted, finally, is the arrival of French Max et Lenny by Fred Nicolas (article), which tells the story of a meeting between two teenagers in one of the northern neighbourhoods in Marseilles, with a screenplay written by the director, together with French writer François Bégaudeau (The class [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile]).

(Translated from French)