WHEN EAST MEETS WEST january 22-24, 2017 organized by with the support of under the patronage of in partnership with 2017 partners LST partners FCL partner #FEEDback partner in cooperation with database in collaboration with with the technical support of Savoia Excelsior Palace CONTENTS 4 FOREWORD 6 WEMW SELECTED PROJECTS 106 WEMW GUEST PROJECTS 116 LAST STOP TRIESTE 130 FIRST CUT LAB 140 INDEX PARTICIPANTS 280 WEMW PARTNERS 286 STAFF 288 OLFFI - FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE SPOTLIGHT COUNTRIES 3 FOREWORD In presenting every new edition - and this is the 7th - there is always the few existing barriers. As Europeans we must believe that the cultural danger of repeating oneself. diversity of the Continent is a source of richness to exploit - not a I have been writing these introductions since 2011 and I must confess limitation but a resource to be harnessed, to encourage growth for all”. that, re-reading what I wrote in the past few years, I did repeat myself quite a lot. WEMW is an event organised by the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia Audiovisual In recent years I remarked more than once about the increase in the Fund together with the Trieste Film Festival, in collaboration with EAVE, number of projects and participants and about the growing interest Maia Workshops, Creative Europe Desk Italia, Eurimages and with around this event in Trieste, but this being an annual occurrence I often the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme; Direzione tended to say the same things year on year. This time I shall not mention Generale per il Cinema – MiBACT; CEI (Central European Initiative); this, not because the numbers would contradict me, but because the Confartigianato Udine; and Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia. 2017 edition has a new format, and I think it's more important to The 2017 edition of WEMW, with the support of the CNC - Centre highlight this aspect, which will also characterise future editions. national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Estonian Film Institute, From this year we shall focus both on an Eastern and on a Western Lithuanian Film Centre and National Film Centre of Latvia, and in European region: this new formula aims to open new horizons in the collaboration with the Creative Europe Desks from Estonia, Latvia multifaceted European cinema scene and is based on the idea of and Lithuania, will be a three-day event dedicated to producers, facilitating mutual interests shared by two chosen geographic areas. commissioning editors, sales agents, representatives of markets and To inaugurate this new format France has been chosen to represent the regional/national funds from all over Europe. Our aim is, as ever, to West, and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) the East. This create an event that can generate close ties between the participating means that WEMW has selected producers from Eastern Europe who regions and countries. An international array of cinema professionals have projects suitable for co-productions with France (or Italy), and gather in Trieste for a series of round-tables, master-classes and case producers from Western Europe looking for co-producers in the Baltic studies organised to facilitate opportunities for collaboration between States (or Italy). Moreover, all Italian producers who are developing a Eastern European producers and Western companies, and vice-versa. documentary or feature with co-production potential with the areas in This makes the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia Region a unique point of reference question, have also been invited. for such initiatives. Otherwise, the sections launched two years ago remain unchanged. Film and documentary producers from over 40 countries will meet These are First Cut Lab - the workshop dedicated to fiction films in their with commissioning editors, distributors and representatives of funding editing stage; and Last Stop Trieste - which gives the very valuable bodies and markets, so as to present the whole range of production opportunity to present documentaries at an advanced editing stage to a and distribution opportunities, as well as financial resources, available restricted audience of sales agents, festival directors, and broadcasting to the industry. company reps. The excellent results from previous editions are ample We are confident that the 2017 edition of WHEN EAST MEETS WEST justification for keeping these components as they are. will again prove very popular with industry insiders and consolidate I wish all participants, new and old, a pleasant stay in Trieste, and what is, in our opinion, an essential initiative for the development of I shall allow myself (I hope you will forgive me) to repeat only the audiovisual companies of the New Europe. concept (and one that unfortunately is being continually questioned), which I really believe embodies WEMW's founding idea: “Culture is an economic factor of prime importance; it is above all what links PAOLO VIDALI people together; it is a catalyst which will manage to destroy the last FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA AUDIOVISUAL FUND 5 WEMW SELECTED PROJECTS The WEMW international committee led by Danijel Hocevar (Vertigo) and Leena Pasanen (Dok Leipzig), and composed by Manuela Buono (Slingshot Films), Didar Domehri (Maneki Films), Alessandro Gropplero (WEMW) and Jozko Rutar (SPOK), has selected 22 projects in development from 15 different countries. The 2017 final line-up includes 12 fiction feature films and 10 documentaries selected amongst 292 applications from 48 different countries. The WEMW jury, including Matthieu Darras (TorinoFilmLab), Marge Liiske (Industry@Tallinn/Baltic Event), Nikolaj Nikitin (SOFA), Kristina Trapp (EAVE) and Marie Pierre Valle (Wild Bunch), will deliver the CNC Development Award, the EAVE 2017 Producers Workshop Scholarship, the Flow Postproduction Award and the Producers Network Prize. All feature-length projects budgeted at over €1M will also be eligible for the TRL Espresso Award, an automatic selection at MIA|New Cinema Network and at Film London PFM in October 2017. Last but not least, the European Women’s Audiovisual Network will deliver the brand new EWA Network Best Woman Director Award. In addition to the 22 projects selected for the pitching forum, WEMW invited two guest projects (one documentary and one fiction feature) previously presented at one of the 2017 partners platforms: DOCSP and Les Arcs Coproduction Village. 7 10 ABOUT THE END UNITED KINGDOM/ITALY/CANADA 16 ALFA BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA/CROATIA 20 BEFORE FATHER IS BACK GEORGIA/FRANCE/GERMANY 26 CHILDREN OF TALSINKI ESTONIA 30 DEAD WOMAN ESTONIA 34 FLESH OUT ITALY 38 GENTLE WARRIORS lithuania 42 I WILL CROSS TOMORROW france 46 INSECT NIGHT LATVIA 50 LUST FOR LIFE Czech Republic 54 MADAME LUNA sweden 8 58 MONTAIGNE italy 62 OUR FATHER hungary 66 PEOPLE WE KNOW ARE CONFUSED LITHUANIA 72 QUEENS austria 78 SOLVING MY MOTHER latvia 82 TELEPHONE SUICIDES argentina 86 THE PASS GEORGIA/FRANCE 90 THE USERS serbia 94 ThE WIND. A DOCumENTARY THRILLER poland 98 WISHING ON A STAR ITALY/AUSTRIA/SLOVAKIA 102 ZUHAL turkey 9 LOGLINE ABOUT THE END A film about the apocalypses that we survived and those that might lie ahead. GENRE Documentary SYNOPSIS DIRECTOR Cristina Picchi WRITER Cristina Picchi “The End”, whether seen as a religious experience bound to a final PRODUCERS Emily Morgan, Simone Catania, day of judgment, as a political threat of weapons of mass destruc- Annick Blanc, Cristina Rajola tion, a natural disaster or an ecological issue, evokes the universal BUDGET € 400.000 (€ 43.000 in place) human fear of our powerlessness and finiteness. Through a highly visual and immersive sensory style, ABOUT THE END will explore COMPANIES Soda Pictures, Indyca the concept of “apocalypse”, in its metaphorical, philosophical LOOKING FOR Co-producers, Financing, Sales Agents, Festivals and socio-political manifestations, ultimately touching on themes such as human transiency and vulnerability and our relationship with the forces surrounding us and with time itself. The film will develop as the interplay of three different narrative lines, unfolding through three extreme situations, across different continents. We will travel to Northern Quebec, where workers are dismantling a series of radar stations that were built during the cold war to de- tect nuclear attacks. In Indonesia, we’ll explore a community living Cristina Picchi Cristina Rajola at the edge of Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active vol- canoes. In Italy, we’ll accompany the everyday life of a “prepper”, a person who is getting equipped and mentally ready to survive to an imminent yet uncertain catastrophe. In an increasingly unstable CONTACT DETAILS and ever changing reality, reflecting over “The End” and the way it Soda Pictures is perceived opens up possibilities of a deeper conversation about London, United Kingdom our current fear-based society as well as a fascinating exploration T: +44 020 7377 1407 over of the essence of what it is to be human, and our relationship [email protected] with the forces surrounding us, as well as with time itself. www.sodapictures.com 10 DIRECTOR statement leases 25+ films a year and has a library of over 300 films from all corners of the world. In 2014 Soda Pictures was acquired by the My work has often dealt with aspects of life that I have found per- Canadian production company Thunderbird Films in order to join plexing, if not plainly worring: from the personal strength it takes to a greater media group, build a theatrical film division in Canada survive in conditions as extreme as the Siberian Winter