07/06/2006

"To me, the devil has a lot of faces and Hell and Heaven are here now", said Danis Tanović, onhand in Rome for 01 Distribution’s June 9 release of Hell [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (the film will soon he out in Hungary, Germany, Greece and Spain), the second feature by the Bosnian director of the Oscar winning No Man's Land.

The film is based on a screenplay by Krzysztof Kieslowski, the second chapter of a trilogy on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, conceived with his screenplay Krzysztof Piesiewicz shortly before Polish master’s death, for other young, foreign directors. "I don’t think I’m capable of making a film like Kieslowski would", he said. "On the contrary, some have seen my version as a true sacrilege. My way of working is certainly different than his, but I used his screenplay of approximately 60 pages because I was fascinated, above all, by this female characters ".

Highly criticized by the French press, Hell is a female drama, starring French actresses Emmanuelle Béart, Karin Viard, Marin Gillain and Carole Bouquet, for audiences made up predominantly of women aged 25 and up.

"I was excited by the idea of co-producing a film by Tanović", said Rosanna Seregni, who with Sintra Film participated at 11% in the overall budget of over €6m. "I accepted the offer by producer Čedomir Kola, with whom I’d already worked on in Slovenia on Well Tempered Corpses, of becoming the third European producer, together with France and Belgium. This is how we obtained €600,000 from Eurimages, and the collaboration from RAI Cinema was also very important. Italy’s participation is not solely financial: the film was edited Francesca Calvelli, who also edited No Man's Land”.

(Translated from Italian)