16/11/2020 - Projects by Claire Burger, Kamal Lazraq, Hicham Lasri, Julie Caty and brothers Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi steal focus on the agenda of the co-production market, which is unspooling online 17 - 18 November

Director Claire Burger, whose project Foreign Tongue has been selected

Organised in digital form for the very first time, the French-German Film Meetings (steered by UniFrance, German Films and the French-German Film Academy) are set to unspool between 17 – 19 November, with this 18th edition set to tackle the major issues currently impacting the film industry on both sides of the Rhine (the regulation of SVOD platforms, the independence of producers, the distribution, exhibition and shooting of films in times of Covid-19, post-crisis prospects, the future of international co-productions, etc.). But attention will also shift to the co-production market and its 17 featured projects.

Standing particularly tall among the 10 projects of French derivation is Foreign Tongue [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which will be the 3rd feature film by Claire Burger following on from Party Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Amachoukeli, Claire B…
film profile] (which she co-directed, and which won the Golden Camera as well as an award within Cannes’ Un Certain Regard line-up in 2014) and Real Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claire Burger
film profile] (victorious in 2018 within Venice’s Giornate degli Autori line-up and the winner of Les Arcs’ Crystal Arrow trophy). Written by the filmmaker, the story chronicles a friendship between two teenagers who embark on a foreign exchange between France and Germany. We follow in the footsteps of 15-year-old Fanny who leaves her parents for the very first time to spend a month in Leipzig with the family of her German counterpart Lena. Produced by Marie-Ange Luciani on behalf of Les Films de Pierre, filming on Foreign Tongue is due to commence in August 2021.

Other projects of French origin include Hounds [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kamal Lazraq
film profile] by Kamal Lazraq (steered by Barney Production alongside Moroccan firm Mont Fleuri Production and Belgium’s Velvet Films, and already shored up by Charades in international sales and by Ad Vitam in distribution in France) and Nina by Hicham Lasri (produced by Les Films du Tambour), who made a name for himself in Berlin in 2015, 2016 and 2017 with The Sea is Behind, Starve Your Dog and Headbang Lullaby [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] respectively.

Animation will also occupy a place on the agenda thanks to Musketeers of the Tsar by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi (Est-Ouest Films, who have already secured Russia’s Kinoatis, Dutch firm Walking the Dog and British group GFM Animations as co-production partners) and Wild Woman by Julie Caty (Sacrebleu Productions), which is based upon the eponymous comic book by Swiss writer Tom Tirabosco, which recounts the misadventures, in a near-future age, of a woman who leaves unravelling, chaotic civilisation behind her and travels through the wilds of nature to reach the northern reaches of the US where the rebels have taken refuge…

Likewise gracing the showcase is Nicolas Gayraud’s documentary Inertie (La Vingt-Cinquième Heure), Gorune Aprikian’s Animal (Araprod), Valérie Pierson’s Tomorrow on Mars (Coffee and Films), Paul Mignot’s The Choice of Souls (Greenlight Films) and Nitsa Benchetrit’s Nothing To Lose (Katsize Films).

Meanwhile, standing tall among the seven German projects on the agenda is the animated title Wûf by Özcan Alper (ArtHood Films), based upon the novel intitled Ouâf by Turkey’s Kemal Varol, It’s a Sad and Beautiful World by Cyril Aris (Reynard Film, who have already partnered with French firm Cinenovo and Lebanese outfit Abbout Productions) and The Virility Factor, a dark comedy about the war of the sexes by Irene von Alberti (Filmgalerie 451).

Also worth a mention are Luzie Loose’s What You Call Love (Chromosom Film), Pary ElʼQualqili’s Free Ahed (Horse&Fruits Filmproduktion; already supported by Arte La Lucarne, among others), the documentary My Father’s Two Sides by Fariba Buchheim (Nozy Films) and the biopic Not Close Enough! (which is yet to find a director, which is steered by Penned Pictures and which explores how Endre Friedmann and Gerda Taro created the legend surrounding Robert Capa).

(Translated from French)