25/11/2020 - Upcoming films by France’s Noémie Lvovsky, Portugal’s Tiago Guedes and Greece’s Alexandros Avranas will also be co-produced by the film arm of the French-German TV network

The fifth 2020 selection committee organised by Arte France Cinéma (under the aegis of Olivier Père) has opted to involve itself in the co-production and pre-purchasing of four projects. Standing tall among these is Soul Mates [+see also:
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Arte France Cinéma will also lend its backing to The Great Magic [+see also:
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Also stealing focus among the selection is Remains of the Wind [+see also:
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film profile] competed in Venice in 2019). Produced by France via Alfama Films in league with Portugal (Leopardo Filmes), this feature will revolve around Laureano, a young boy left with irreversible after-effects following a brutal beating by three young teens, meted out during a rite of passage inscribed within the pagan tradition of their small village in Trás-os-Montes. 25 years later, this man who is nearing 40 and has the mental age of a child is marginalised by society and treated by many as the local kook. But for the first time in a great number of years, his three former tormentors come together for Saint Jean’s Eve. One of their sons is subsequently discovered dead, the victim of an attack by a pack of abandoned dogs, and this brutal event upsets relations in the village community…

Finally, Arte France Cinéma will lend its support to Apathie (working title), the 5th film by Greek director Alexandros Avranas, whose repertoire notably includes Miss Violence [+see also:
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interview: Alexandros Avranas
film profile] (Silver Lion for Best Director and Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice 2013) and Love Me Not [+see also:
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interview: Alexandros Avranas
film profile] (in competition in San Sebastian in 2017). Produced by France (Les Films du Worso and Elle Driver), Denmark (Snowglobe) and Russia (Metrafilm), the film will follow in the footsteps of Sergei and Natalia, two political asylum seekers who have fled Russia for Sweden with their two daughters Katja and Alina, in hope of a better life. Their hopes are shattered when their request for asylum is refused. Traumatised by this rejection, their daughter Katja suddenly sinks into a comatose, lethargic state otherwise known as Resignation Syndrome, a medical mystery mainly afflicting children of refugees.

For the record, Arte France Cinéma is most notably supporting upcoming films by Leos Carax, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Asghar Farhadi, Ursula Meier, Mia Hansen-Løve, Claire Denis, Alain Guiraudie, Miguel Gomes, Joachim Trier, Nadav Lapid, Quentin Dupieux, Jonas Carpignano, Kirill Serebrennikov, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mathieu Amalric, Lisandro Alonso, Tarik Saleh, Mikhaël Hers, Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Louis Garrel, Jan P. Matuszyński, Albert Serra, Julia Ducournau, Thierry de Peretti, Arthur Harari, Leyla Bouzid, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Aurélia Georges, Alice Diop, Hafsia Herzi, Dinara Droukarova, Vincent Le Port, Régis Sauder, Thomas Balmès, Chen Bo Yilin, Dror Moreh and the duo Mina Mileva - Vesela Kazakova, not to mention animated films coming courtesy of Florence Miailhe and Pierre Földes.

(Translated from French)