17/06/2020 - The French sales agent’s line-up includes the new film by Kamen Kalev, endowed with the Official Selection label, and the forthcoming titles by Leah Purcell, Hany Abu-Assad and Asghar Farhadi

Four features immersed in pre-sales, four more getting virtual market screenings and five completed films: the Memento Films International team, managed by Emilie Georges and guided by head of sales Mathieu Delaunay (aided by Alexandre Moreau), will certainly have a very varied range of ammunition at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film Online (22-26 June).

One particularly notable recent addition to the slate is February [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Bulgaria’s Kamen Kalev, which has just been stamped with the Cannes 2020 Official Selection label. Having already turned heads on the Croisette with Eastern Plays [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kamen Kalev
film profile] and The Island [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2009 and 2011, respectively, the filmmaker has himself written the screenplay for his new opus, which follows Petar during three distinct periods of his humble life in rural eastern Bulgaria. Sun, work, land, sheep and birds. But there is nothing ordinary about this unconventional man, who treads his own poetic path and accepts his destiny with no regrets. It is being produced by Waterfront Film together with Paris-based outfit Koro Films, and it has secured support from Eurimages and the National Film Centre of Bulgaria, among other sources. Its French release will be handled by UFO Distribution.

Also shining bright on Memento’s line-up are three films that were first announced at the EFM: A Hero by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi (which is being shot this summer), the spy thriller featuring a female protagonist Huda’s Salon [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Dutch-Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad (currently in production) and The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson by Australia’s Leah Purcell (a revenge movie in post-production that will be pre-sold based on a promo-reel).

The virtual market screenings include This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival), Under the Stars of Paris [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Claus Drexel, Wet Season by Singapore’s Anthony Chen and Adoration [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile] by Belgium’s Fabrice du Welz. And that’s not to mention five titles that have already been completed, two of which were screened out of competition at Berlin (Persian Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] by Vadim Perelman and My Salinger Year [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Philippe Falardeau). And there’s also How to Be a Good Wife [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
film profile] by France’s Martin Provost (which will return to French cinemas on 22 June after getting off to a flying start just before the start of the lockdown).

(Translated from French)