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BERLINALE 2020 EFM

Charades to the power of 20 in Berlin

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- The agent's line-up includes Panorama title Mogul Mowgli and 11 films in post-production, directed by, among others, Kirill Serebrennikov, Emma Dante, Chloé Mazlo and the duo Rana Kazkaz - Anas Khalaf

Charades to the power of 20 in Berlin
Mogul Mowgli by Bassam Tariq

The European Film Market of the 70th Berlinale (20 February - 1 March) looks promising for French international sales company Charades, who will be attending with a very diverse slate of 20 titles, 5 of which five are very attractive new films.

On the festival side of things, the team of Yohann Comte, Carole Baraton, Pierre Mazars and Constantin Briest is betting on Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bassam Tariq
film profile
]
, which will be having its world premiere tomorrow night in Panorama. With a cast led by English actor Riz Ahmed, the film centres on a young British rapper who is just about to go on his first world tour when a crippling illness strikes him down, which forces him to move back in with his family and to redefine himself, between international music career and Pakistani family traditions. The film is a British production by Left Handed Films, Pulse Films and Silvertown Films.

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Five new titles in post-production will be pre-sold based on promo reels. Standing out among them is Petrov’s Flu [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
from Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, who was very well received with Leto [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ilya Stewart
film profile
]
in competition in 2018 at Cannes where his previous film, The Student, was also popular in 2016 in Un Certain Regard.

Also in the line-up is The Macaluso Sisters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
from Italian director Emma Dante, the second feature from the filmmaker after A Street in Palermo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emma Dante
film profile
]
(winner of the Best Actress award in Venice in 2013). Produced by Rosamont,Minimum Fax Media and Rai Cinema, the film centres on five sisters living in an apartment in Palermo, until one normal day at the beach, where one of them accidentally dies. Her death will turn upside down the the relationships between her sisters for the rest of their lives.

Charades will also begin pre-sales on Skies of Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
from French director Chloé Mazlo, produced by Moby Dick Films and starring Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher and Lebanese-Quebecois actor Wajdi Mouawad.

Another new addition to the line-up: the political thriller The Translator [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf
film profile
]
, from the duo of Syrian origins Rana Kazkaz - Anas Khalaf. Handled by Parisian company Georges Films, with Syrian company Synéastes Films, Tipimages Productions (Switzerland), Artémis Productions (Belgium) and Arte France Cinéma, the film centres on Sami, who was the Arabic-English translator for the Syrian Olympic team in Sydney, Australia in 2000. A slip of the tongue forced him to stay in Australia and live in exile as a political refugee. qu’un lapsus a contraint à rester en Australie comme réfugié politique. In 2011, when the Syrian revolution starts and his brother is arrested, Sami risks everything to return to Syria to find him…

The 5th new title in post-production joining the Charades line-up is the stop motion animated film Even Mice Belong In Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
from Czech duo Denisa Grimmová - Jan Bubenícek. Produced by Czech company Fresh Films together with Les Films du Cygne (France), Animoon (Poland) and CinemArt (Slovakia), the film tells the story of a little mouse and a fox. They are naturally mortal enemies but, one day, after an unfortunate accident, both meet in animal heaven. Together, they will embark on a fantastic journey where they will discover that friendship can overcome everything.

Two other new films in post-production announced last month at the 22nd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris will be pre-sold in Berlin based on promo reels: Antoine Barraud’s Madeleine Collins [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antoine Barraud
film profile
]
 and Laurent Tirard’s The Speech [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Standing out in post-production as well are The Rose Maker [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
from Pierre Pinaud, starring Catherine Frot, Franco-Belgian thriller Hunted [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Vincent Paronnaud (starring Arieh Worthalter and Lucie Debay), American historical drama The World To Come by Mona Fastvold (starring Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott) and Canadian sci-fi comedy PG (Psycho Goreman) by Steven Kostanski (which will be revealed at SXSW in Austin).

At the EFM, Charades will also be working on pre-sales for the 3D animated film currently in production Bigfoot Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ben Stassen
film profile
]
, from Belgian animators/directors Ben Stassen and Vincent Kesteloot.

Finally, standing out among market screenings is the world premiere of Bruno Merle’s Felicità [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, starring Pio Marmaï and Camille Rutherford.

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(Translated from French)

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