26/06/2019 - The French firm led by Laurent Danielou is selling Slovakian director Marko Škop’s new film, which is in the running for this year's Crystal Globe

A fan of high-quality films, especially those of Eastern European provenance, the Parisian international sales agent Loco Films, headed up by Laurent Danielou, will be rocking up at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (running 28 June to 6 July) with an impressive trump card up its sleeve, as Let There Be Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marko Škop
interview: Milan Ondrík
film profile] by the Slovakian filmmaker Marko Škop will enjoy its world premiere here, in competition, on 30 June.

"We’d already sold Eva Nová, Marko Škop’s first feature film which premiered in Toronto back in 2015 and subsequently carried off the FIPRESCI Prize in the Discovery section", Laurent Danielou tells us. "So naturally, he sent us the script for Let There Be Light and we soon signed on the dotted line. It’s the only "Czechoslovakian" work in competition at Karlovy Vary this year, and it will then go on to have its Asian premiere in Pusan. Marko is a director with an incredible talent for mise en scène and who knows how to build a story around a specific subject. Let There Be Light tackles the subject of rising terrorism. A father who’s an economic migrant living in Germany returns home to his little village in Slovakia for Christmas and is shocked to discover his son has been recruited by a paramilitary organisation: the film gets right to the heart of what’s happening in Europe today."

Produced by Slovakian company Artileria and co-produced by Czech firm Negativ Film Productions alongside Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska and Česká televize with the notable support of Eurimages, Let There Be Light sees Milan Ondrík in the lead role, an actor who already took centre stage in the picture Eva Nová [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marko Škop
film profile], which won him the title of Best Actor at the Slovakian Film Awards 2016 (the film itself carrying away a total of five trophies in the categories of Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress).

During its time in Karlovy Vary, the Loco Films team (which includes Arnaud Godard) will likewise continue sales of Once in Trubchevsk [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Russian director Larissa Sadilova, which premiered worldwide in Cannes last month in the Un Certain Regard line-up, and Leaving Afghanistan [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sadilova’s fellow countryman Pavel Lungin, a movie which very recently took home the prize for Best Screenplay at the Shanghai International Film Festival).

(Translated from French)