06/07/2007

Upside Down, That Special Summer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Vivere were shown in parallel sections of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and all deal with the difficult interactions between human beings.

Upside Down from Igor Ivanov looks at individuality in the face of collectivist behaviour and is a parable about growing up in a country in transition. Milan Tocinovski gives a mesmerizing performance as a Macedonian circus artist who defies gravity when in the ring but who has trouble finding his footing in the real world dominated by crowd politics.

The promising debut was produced by Sektor Film (Macedonia), who also handle international sales, in co-production with Mainframe (Croatia) and Cinears (Serbia) and the backing of the Global Film Initiative and the ministries of culture of the three countries involved.

Swedish/Finnish co-production That Special Summer is the solid feature debut by Nanna Huolman (see news) and is inspired by her own childhood as a second generation Finn in Sweden. The summer in question takes place in Finland, where a young, aspiring radio reporter tries to come to terms with her mother and her feelings for a son of Finnish immigrants in Sweden.

Nordisk Film has taken over international sales from Trust Film for the Tre Vänner Produktion that will be released in Sweden in October through SF Film.

With the German/Dutch Vivere, Angelina Maccarone returns to a story with lesbian overtones and people on foreign grounds after her 2005 film Unveiled [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. On Christmas Eve, two Italian-German sisters and a middle-aged lesbian (an outstanding Hannelore Elsner) find themselves in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.

Thrown together by an unlikely chain of events, Maccarone unravels their story by telling it three times, once from each character’s point of view. The Elsani Film/Revolver/Screenart production will be released in Germany in October through Stardust. Sales are handled by Media Luna.