06/05/2022 - Selected for the Directors’ Fortnight, this film noir flirting with sci-fi by Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi shines bright in the French sales agent’s jam-packed line-up

"A crime film in a film noir vein which slowly edges towards sci-fi and has a Tunisian director is a very rare thing. In the first instance, there’s a little of the The Nile Hilton Incident [+see also:
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Written by Youssef Chebbi and François-Michel Allegrini, Ashkal thrusts us into one of the buildings within the Jardins de Carthage district in Tunis, which was created by the old regime but on which construction was abruptly halted at the beginning of the revolution. Two cops, Fatma (Fatma Oussaifi) and Batal (Mohamed Houcine Grayaa), discover a burnt body in one of the lots. As the building work slowly resumes, they start looking into this curious case. But their investigation takes a worrying turn when a similar event unfolds … This first fiction feature is produced by Parisian firm Supernova in co-production with fellow French outfit Poetik Film and Tunisia’s Blast Film.

Another eye-catching work in The Party Film Sales’ line-up for Cannes is the French-Greenlander feature film (the first ever movie produced by the latter to make it to Cannes) Polaris [+see also:
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film profile] by Spain’s Ainara Vera, which is due to be unveiled in the ACID selection. Produced by Point du Jour - Les Films du Balibari together with Ánorâk Film, this fiction feature revolves around Hayat, a skilled seawoman in the Arctic who is navigating her way far away from men and her past.. But when her younger sister Leila gives birth to a little girl, their lives are turned upside down. Guided by the North Star, will they find a way to move past the difficult family fate which binds them together?

The Marché du Film will also see The Party Film Sales pinning their hopes on a flurry of promo reels for post-production titles, including Morrison by Thailand’s Phuttiphong Aroonpheng (who won Best Film within Venice’s 2018 Orizzonti section for his first feature Manta Ray), which is co-produced by French firm CG Cinéma, When it Melts [+see also:
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film profile] by Damien Onouri and Adila Bendimerad.

Also worth a mention on the documentary side, and set for release very soon, is Tessa-Louise Salomé’s The Wild One (charting the unusual life of Jack Garfein, which took him from the Carpathian Mountains and on to Hollywood), which will enjoy its world premiere in competition in Tribeca; Paradise [+see also:
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film profile] (working title) by Alexander Abaturov (well-received in the 2018 Berlinale Forum thanks to The Son [+see also:
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film profile] by Stéphane Malterre and Garance Le Caisne). And, since diversity is the name of the game when it comes to the agent’s line-up, pre-sales are also set to continue on two French comedies in post-production: Julien Guetta’s offbeat movie Top Dogs [+see also:
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film profile], and socially-minded offering The Takeover [+see also:
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film profile] by Gilles Perret.

(Translated from French)