The New Cinema Network Introduction

The 2014 edition of New Cinema Network, the Festival’s coproduction market, will present 27 international projects selected by the committee composed of Marco Müller, Marie-Pierre Duhamel and Laura Buffoni, together with the staff of NCN. This year’s edition will feature quality, international projects, a higher than ever number of attending producers from all over the world, and a range of awards.

Once again, New Cinema Network is honoured to count on the participation of Eurimages - the Council of Europe’s Film Fund - which will delegate the NCN jury to confer the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award : a cash prize of 30,000 Euro to the project most in line with the principles of collaboration and coproduction that inspire Eurimages.

This year’s Eurimages jury for NCN is:

Marie-Pierre Duhamel: film critic and film translator, she teaches at the French film school La Fémis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) and other film schools. She worked for CNC, La Sept/ARTE and Centre Pompidou, and is a programmer for various international film festivals.

Sandra Hebron: she is a freelance film consultant with over twenty years of experience in independent film exhibition, and is the board member of numerous arts and cultural organizations. She was the Artistic Director of the BFI London Film Festival from 2003-2011, as well as Cinemas Director of Manchester’s Cornerhouse.

Elena Kotová: as scriptwriter, script editor and presenter for Czechoslovak (later Slovak) Television in Bratislava, she was the author of over 300 programs. She was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Kinofilm and was head of acquisitions for the distribution companies Remake and Itafilm. From 2005-2007, as creative producer, she made the documentary series within the program EQUAL of the European Union. Between 2009 and 2012 she was the script reader for Eurimages, and in 2012 she became the Czech national coordinator for Eurimages.

This year’s edition will not only feature a larger number of projects than the past years, but it will also introduce a new set of prizes. Among them, the UNICEF Italia Special Mention , in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Convention on children’s rights. This Special Mention will be awarded to the Italian project that most effectively and delicately gives a voice and a face to children’s rights everywhere. The synergy between a talent platform like NCN and UNICEF Italia, which has always had special consideration for the relationship between culture, creativity and children’s rights, wants to support initiatives that will be able to promote knowledge as a key for freedom and growth, both in individuals and society as a whole.

Finally, thanks to the new collaboration with Cubix International, this year New Cinema Network will also feature the Cubix International Award : a 5,000 Euro cash prize awarded to the best emerging European producer. The award is funded by Cubix International to support a production during its delicate phase of project development.

136 NCN ProjECtS Argentina Break Hernán Guerschuny

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile During the four days of the Easter weekend, three couples and their children gather Hernan Guerschuny majored in film directing at CIC HC Films SrL original title in the countryside. In these four days we'll see the combination of the various (Centre of Film Investigation) and has a Social Haciendo Cine has 19 years of experience as a company Recreo components of the modern-day upper middle class generation of forty-something- Communications degree from the University of of cultural products and contents in Argentina. It was English title year-olds: children of divorce, psychoanalyzed, crossed by the new age of hyper Buenos Aires. Since 1995 he has directed the film founded by filmmakers Hernán Guerschuny and Pablo Break communication. Deep reflections on the search for “meaning”, blended with shallow Screenplay by business magazine Haciendo Cine. As a film director Udenio. In 1995 they founded Haciendo Cine, a leading ambitions and various anxieties will come together in an unusual context: a field Hernán Guerschuny, he’s been experimenting with short films for many magazine publication about the film industry in Latin Jazmín Stuart flown by hot air balloons, troubled by the mysterious death of a dog, and watered by years. In 2006 his short film La Cita won the Telefe America. Since 2001, they organize courses and Format litres of good red wine . The escaping time, the midlife pending matters, the Contest (local TV network) and the AXN Film Festival. seminars with professionals of the industry, including HD repressed wild sides, the duality of family life, the fantasy of running away and His feature film debut came in 2014 with The Critic . Pablo Trapero and Alejandro Agresti. Shooting Language returning to adolescence, success and failure, competition, appearances, the ghost of Guerschuny is currently in pre-production for his next Since 2009 they have organized and selected projects Spanish old age and death, the comfort of bourgeois life, the drugs and rock and roll. film project Break . that will be involved in the section “Primer Corte“ of Main Locations the film market of Ventana Sur. As a production Capilla del Señor, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2014 the Critic company, HC Films has produced several commercials, Director’s Statement FEATURE FILM documentaries and TV shows. The company has also The scenes in Break will seek as much realism as possible, in a way that will identify a 2006 La Cita managed the distribution of Argentinean films from generation of people in their 40’s that have common concerns. In order to achieve this, SHORT FILM fellow Argentinean directors like Santiago Giralt and Main Producer there will be an emphasis on working closely with the actors to find the characteristics HC Films Telefe Contest: Best Short Film Award Pablo Fendrik. and particularities of each character. The choice of the actors is as important as the AXN Film Festival: Best Short Film Award HC Films has acquired the rights to adapt Abzurdah , Bonpland 1343 7° “C“ characters in the film, which were written with specific actors in mind. The film will be 1414 Buenos Aires the bestselling novel by Cielo Latini, into a motion shot with two cameras. The coverage will be nervous but decisive, seeking the picture. In early 2014 they premiered their first feature Argentina combination between realism and the aesthetics offered by the countryside location. Ph. +54 1147759072 film The Critic written and directed by Hernan The photography will represent different moments with different looks. The first, more Guerschuny, and produced by Pablo Udenio. pablou pastel-like with less contrast, when the families enjoy their weekend; the second with @haciendocine.com.ar more contrast and stronger lighting, for when the problems start to arise. The air- balloons sequence will serve as a visual rest from this increasingly oppressive world. Estimated budget The music won’t highlight the situation, only a few songs from the 80’s will serve as an € 400.398 element to show a world where sex, drugs and baby milk bottles can co-exist. Financing in place € 281.050

Financiers/partners already involved INCAA (Argentina ): € 226.654 Alta Definicion Argentina SA (Argentina ): € 27.198 Zub Sonido (Argentina ): € 27.198

138 139 NCN ProjECtS Austria Angelo Markus Schleinzer

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Angelo is the story of an African man sold into slavery and sent to Europe, where he Born in Vienna in 1971, Markus Schleinzer worked as a Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion GmbH original title receives his eponymous name through the holy sacrament of baptism. The story casting director from 1994 to 2010, contributing to five Based in Vienna, Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion Angelo begins in 1720 in Messina, and will find its symbolic ending in the 1848 October television series, including Kommissar Rex und Julia – has, since its creation in 1995, produced dozens of Screenplay by Revolution in Vienna. die Bezirksrichterin , as well as some fifty feature films, projects for film and television. Markus Schleinzer It is the story of a man who, with a career unusual for his time, went from being Format among which Jessica Hausner's Lovely Rita , Hotel and With both advertising and film departments, the object to subject, to object again. It is a story about obtaining identity in a time ARRI RAW, DCP Lourdes , Ulrich Seidl's Dog Days , Shirin Neshat's company produces theatrical features, documentaries, Shooting Language marked by roll-playing and conformity. The protagonist lives a life entirely dedicated Women without Men , and Michael Haneke's The Piano television series, ads and corporate films. In addition French, German, to the needs of others; the story of a servant is always the story of his masters. Teacher, The Time of the Wolf , and, most recently, to international co-productions with Germany, France, Italian, Czech Angelo is an “exotic” foreigner who, recognizably so, cannot operate in incognito but casting the children's roles for Haneke's The White Great Britain, Italy and various East-European Main Locations Austria, who nonetheless uses his only means available – his servitude to others- to move Ribbon . Michael , his feature film debut as director and countries, it has also been behind a number Czech Republic, Italy, ahead; to progress farther than anyone would have ever thought possible. scriptwriter, premiered in competition at the Cannes of low-budget first feature productions. Germany Film Festival in 2011, and has been sold in numerous Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion coproductions has territories and garnered many prizes at festivals participated in competition at festivals such as Berlin, Director’s Statement around the world. Toronto, Sarajevo, Locarno, San Sebastian, Montréal Angelo Soliman is a semi-mythical figure from Viennese history, whose fame extends and Moscow, among others. The long list of national far beyond our country's borders, and whose name is, in academic circles, often 2011 Michael and international awards won by its films attests to Main Producer mentioned in the same breath as Sarah Bartmann, El Negro or Truganini, the last Novotny & Novotny FEATURE FILM the company's ongoing, high-caliber work. Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. In some ways he is considered an icon of European culture. Cannes Film Festival 2011: in competition Filmproduktion GmbH Angelo is a story about so many different things: identity, mythmaking, self-esteem, Weinmarerstrasse 22 the invention of the self, the staging of the self, the futility of fighting lone battles, the 1180 Vienna – Austria impossibility of existing with the facts, and even star dust. Ph. +43 14787170 It is all of this, and above all a subject of strong historical, current and European Fax +43 14787170-20 significance - one that necessarily must be told in Vienna - making Angelo such a alexander.glehr fascinating character to me. @novotnyfilm.at www.novotnyfilm.at

Estimated budget € 6.999.547 Financing in place € 3.061.953

Financiers/partners already involved Luminor (France): € 1.266.309 X-Filme (Germany): € 1.481.068 Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion GmbH (Austria): € 3.552.170

140 141

NCN ProjECtS Brazil Duetto Bruno Barreto

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Duetto takes place in Italy, in the coastal town of Sanremo, during the Italian Song Bruno Barreto was born on March 16, 1955 in Rio de Nexus Cinema original title Festival of 1967. It tells the story of an imaginary and human encounter between Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a director and Nexus Cinema is the producer of Vera by Sergio Toledo Duetto Cora, a 16-year-old Brazilian girl, and the famous and controversial Italian singer- producer, known for Flores Raras (2011), Voando Alto (Silver Bear in Berlin, Best Actress in 1987), Olga by Jayme English title songwriter Luigi Tenco, just hours before his death. But the story begins in São Paulo. (2003), Última Parada 174 (2008) and Dona Flor e Seus Monjardim based on the book by Fernando Morais, Duet After a tragic car accident that kills her father, Cora travels with her 65-year-old Screenplay by Dois Maridos (1976). Brazilian candidate for the 2004 Academy Awards, and a paternal grandmother Lucia to her hometown, Sanremo, known for its music Rita Buzzar, Joao Segall box office success, with over three million viewers in Format festival. Lúcia goes to visit her sister Sofia, 60, to decide if they are going to sell the 2013 Crô: o Filme cinemas and with over one hundred thousand DVDs Digital 4k old family farm in Sanremo. They haven't seen one another in forty years, because FEATURE FILM sold. The company also produced the successful Shooting Language Sofia married Gino, Lucia’s ex fiancé. Between her family past and the dramas and 2011 Flores raras international co-production Budapest , based on the Italian, Portuguese the stories of Sanremo, Cora will find her own path to a mature and adult life. FEATURE FILM novel by Chico Buarque. Last September, Nexus released Main Locations 2008 Última Parada 174 the film and series for Globo Brazilian television Time Tuscany, Liguria, FEATURE FILM and the Wind , a new undertaking with director Jayme Sanremo, Sao Paulo Director’s Statement 2007 Caixa Dois Monjardim, based on the epic work of celebrated I often think about this moving story. FEATURE FILM Brazilian writer Érico Veríssimo. The company is Duetto is about jealousy and forgiveness. This film reminds me very much of Cronaca 2005 o Casamento de romeu e julieta currently producing Duetto , a Brazilian-Italian co- Familiare , directed by the great Valerio Zurlini. Main Producer FEATURE FILM production, to be directed by Bruno Barreto. Nexus Cinema 2003 Voando Alto Rua da Consolação, 3726/92 FEATURE FILM 01416-000 Sao Paulo 2000 Bossa Nova Brazil FEATURE FILM Ph. +55 1130881594 1976 Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos ritabuzzar@nexuscinema FEATURE FILM .com.br www.nexuscinema.com.br

Estimated budget € 2.970.490 Financing in place € 2.570.490

Financiers/partners already involved Imagem Distribution Company (Brazil): € 500.000 Telecine (Brazil): € 100.000 Art.A Audiovisual (Brazil): € 1.470.490 Fundo Setorial (Brazil): € 500.000

144 145 NCN ProjECtS China Il fu Mattia Pascal Zhi Min Sheng

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Xiaoyu’s mother is a mysterious woman, always surrounded by dignitaries and Sheng Zhimin has organized and planned many Shenglai tV and Film Culture Company original title wealthy men. Xiaoyu doesn’t question his mother’s lifestyle, but he hates living in performance events, from rock band concerts Shenglai TV and Film Culture Company has produced Il fu Mattia Pascal Beijing, which he considers just another boring city. His mother sends him to a posh to experimental plays. In 1997 he started working as the documentary film Night of an Era , and strives to be Screenplay by private boarding school and takes off to some other international location. Xiaoyu is a filmmaker, and was involved in the creation and involved in the production of many more quality films Gu Zheng, Zhi Min Sheng used to it by now, and starts his new life at the boarding school, where he makes two Format production of many film and TV series. In 2002 he in the future. friends: Xiaoran, another pupil, and his diving coach. 1:1.85 made the independent film Two Hearts , thanks to Shooting Language A passionate swimmer, Xiaoyu is gay, but keeps it a secret. At night, he sneaks out to which he became one of the up and coming directors Chinese gay bars to hook up with random men, but at school he splits his time between in Mainland China. The film was selected at the Berlin Main Locations Xiaoran and his coach. He likes the bright, sunny disposition of Xiaoran, but he also Film Festival’s Youth Forum. In 2005 he directed Bliss , Hong Kong enjoys the physical, athletic relationship he has with his coach. Xiaoran is straight which won the Best Asian Film NETPAC award at the but he develops a platonic crush on Xiaoyu, completely unaware of the fact that his Locarno International Film Festival. In 2008 he made friend is gay. the Chinese rock music documentary Night of an Era , Several months later, Xiaoyu learns that his mother has died overseas, leaving and in 2009 he filmed the Chinese contemporary art nothing behind for him but a box of ashes and a newborn baby brother. He drops out documentary China, The Empire of Art? . In 2010 he of school and begins a new stage of his life. signed a contract with Le Vision Pictures (Beijing) Co., The police begin harassing Xiaoyu in an attempt to get information about all the Main Producer Ltd. and in 2012 he made film The Zodiac Mystery . important men who surrounded his mother; police intimidation becomes a constant Shenglai tV and Film part of his life. His next-door neighbor was involved in a suicide and she gets trapped Culture Company 2012 the Zodiac Mystery at home as well. She sees Xiaoyu’s little brother and volunteers to take care of him, Wangjing District FEATURE FILM and Xiaoyu accepts her kindness. And so, a peculiar family of three is formed. 100102 Beijing - China 2009 China, the Empire of Art? Suffering non-stop questioning from the police, Xiaoyu loses his dignity and even Ph. +86 1051357916 FEATURE DOCUMENTARY considers killing himself and his little brother, but he knows that this act of Fax +86 1051357916 2008 Night of an Era cowardice would disappoint everyone. To get his normal life back, he decides to find [email protected] FEATURE DOCUMENTARY his brother’s real father and give him up. 2005 Bliss Estimated budget FEATURE FILM € 1.500.000 2002 two Hearts Director’s Statement FEATURE FILM Financing in place This film is inspired by a story by Luigi Pirandello. In the original novel the main € 500.000 character chooses suicide, but in this adaptation I want him to choose compromise and survival (as opposed to life). Financiers/partners Whenever I see Beijing with its bright lights and all those smiling faces full of simple already involved happiness I feel pessimistic. Shenglai TV and Film There are no rules or restrictions on our behavior these days, but I believe we have paid Culture Company (China): a terrible price for this freedom. This high-speed development has brought on a kind of € 500.000 madness. Human nature is warm and strong at heart, even though many people consider those qualities weakness. I cannot believe that we have lost this part of who we are. Only human nature can conquer the madness of modernity and this film is my way of encouraging people to stay strong no matter how crazy the world may get.

146 147

NCN ProjECtS Colombia Oscuro Animal Felipe Guerrero

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Oscuro Animal is the story of three women forced to flee their homes in the midst of Director and editor Felipe Guerrero was born in Gema Films original title the Colombian armed conflict. After an intense storm, dawn breaks on the different Colombia in 1975. His first film Paraíso (2006) received Gema Films is a Buenos Aires based film production Oscuro Animal jungle settings of the stories. the Mention Spécial for First Films at FID Marseille. company that develops and produces author films. It is English title Rocio’s husband has gone missing and she must leave her hometown, which has Corta (2012), his second film, premiered in the Bright currently producing Francisco Varone’s Camino A La Obscure Animal been cornered by paramilitary troops. La Mona has stabbed her boyfriend, a young Screenplay by Future Section at the Rotterdam FF 2012, and was Paz , in coproduction with Habbekrats (Netherlands), abusive paramilitary commander. She escapes, but is left physically weak after a self- Felipe Guerrero exhibited in festivals around the world (FICCI and 327 Cuadernos a documentary by Andres Di Tella Format induced abortion. Nelsa has deserted the paramilitary after completing the Cartagena de Indias, BAFICI Buenos Aires, JIFF Jeonju, based on Ricardo Piglia’s personal diaries. The company 2K assignment of burying the dismembered bodies of executed peasants. Each on their FIDOCS Santiago de Chile, DISTRITAL México DF, SPLIT is developing Oscuro Animal by Felipe Guerrero, in Shooting Language own, they embark on a journey from the rainforest to Bogotá, encountering Croacia, DOKLeipzig, La Habana). coproduction with Mutokino (Colombia) and Spanish characters that will accompany them in their search for shelter. Once in Bogotá, they As an editor, he worked on films exhibited and awarded Biencuidao by Abner Benaim, in coproduction with Main Locations will be able to breathe again and face their new lives. internationally, among them: Los Hongos (2014), La playa Apertura Films (Panama). Producer Gema Juárez Allen’s Colombia After an intense storm, dawn breaks on the different Bogotá settings of the stories. DC (2012), El páramo (2011), El vuelco del Cangrejo (2009). previous credits include Vivan Las Antipodas! (Victor Rocio and Rufina are in a diner preparing a sign asking for help as war refugees. La Kossakovsky, opening film Venice Film Festival 2011), Mona cleans potatoes under the plastic awning of a street stand on the market 2012 Corta Corta (Felipe Guerrero, competition in Rotterdam 2012) Main Producer square. Nelsa mops the lodge’s corridors as drops of rain caress her face. FEATURE DOCUMENTARY and El Ojo Del Tiburon (Alejo Hoijman, CinemaXXI Gema Films Rotterdam Film Festival 2012: Official Competition Competition in Roma 2012, winner of Enel Cuore Award). San Luis 3122 2006 Paraíso 1186 Buenos Aires Director’s Statement FEATURE EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY Mutokino Argentina I intend to make a film that focuses on those who have suffered the violent impact of FID Marseille: Mention Spécial for First Films Mutokino is a production and distribution company Ph. +54 1149660110 war and are thus forced to flee and find a new place in the world to go to. Viennale 2006: Official Competition interested in author cinema with an emphasis on [email protected] The narrative mechanism I propose intertwines three stories about the loss of one’s IFFR 2006: Official Competition formal experimentation and disruptive narratives. www.gemafilms.com home and place of origin; stories of women who are forced to flee on their own and Mutokino is currently producing Oscuro Animal in Mutokino who must face different hardships in their search for shelter. coproduction with Gema Films (Argentina) and has Calle 12B I want to especially work with the inner strength of these characters, who go through previously made Corta (2012) by Felipe Guerrero. Its N59A24 Cali - Colombia an intense and painful process of survival. catalogue as a distribution company counts titles such Ph. +57 3214325979 I want to reflect on the Colombian conflict. Violence is a topic often addressed by as Mambo Cool (2013) and Señoritas (2013, Lina [email protected] artists working with the current situation in Colombia. In Oscuro Animal I want to Rodríguez). www.mutokino.com focus on the underlying fear that resides in the country; the tense pressure that has become part of Colombian daily life, in which war is expected to break out at any Estimated budget moment. And beyond the violent impact the protagonists suffer, I am particularly € 507.300 interested in the reverberation of violence, which settles into their bodies like an illness Financing in place all throughout the film. € 266.500 Financiers/partners already involved Fondo Cinematográfico de Colombia (Colombia): € 128.000 Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (Argentina): € 119.000

150 151

NCN ProjECtS Egypt Ghosts of the City Montasser Hegazy, Marianne Khoury

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Directors’ Profile Company Profile Ghosts of the City is a musical depicting a love story between a young man, Mousha Montasser Hegazy is a young Egyptian poet and Misr International Films original title and a girl, Nema who both live in the slum area of Boulaq in the heart of Cairo. They director. He has written lyrics to Egyptian independent Misr International Films (MIF) was founded in 1972 by Afareet El Balad come from different parts of the same layer of society that struggles to make a living bands since 1999 and has received several awards for the late, world-renowned Egyptian filmmaker Youssef English title mostly through illegal means. Mousha works as a delivery boy using his motorcycle, his work. Since 2004, he has worked in TV as a writer Chahine. It is commonly acknowledged as the most Ghosts of the City and is a member of a band of young snatchers. Nema’s uncle is Nasr El Dakhakhny, Screenplay by and director and specialized in musical programs prestigious film company in the Middle East. Youssef head of a group of burglars and a long lasting enemy of Mousha’s band. When the which introduced a lot of colloquial Arabic poets and Chahine’s films, which have been key in depicting Montasser Hegazy th Format 25 of January Revolution erupts, on the engagement day of the two lovers, most of the Egyptian pop music on TV. He is the modern Egypt and capturing the complexity of its HD Mousha’s friends abandon their old rivalry and go from being snatchers to scriptwriter of Ramses Wagon , an award winning film society, have received international acclaim, winning Shooting Language ambulance service providers inside the square. This makes them uncover human in the 2007 Egyptian Film Festival and Train to Marg numerous international prizes culminating in the Arabic sides of their personalities that they didn’t know existed. Dreaming of a better (2004), an adaption of Mohamed Maghout’s novel. Lifetime Achievements Award at the Cannes Film Main Locations tomorrow after the revolution’s demands of social justice, Mousha tries to enter the Festival. Today, MIF, an integrated film company with Cairo’s Shantytown hotel on the Nile, in order to make Nema’s only wish come true: to have dinner in the Marianne Khoury is a Cairo-based filmmaker who substantial experience in every aspect of the hotel next to the burning National Party. Not only the two lovers, but the community produces and directs films that engage the audience on production, distribution and exhibition processes, as a whole, realize that their dream of a decent life is not unattainable. Ghosts of the an intimate level and tackle controversial themes such as remains instrumental in designing the landscape of City is the tale of a generation, the Egyptian youth suppressed by decades of injustice identity, memory, and social exclusion. She has worked the Egyptian film industry. MIF has also been very and unemployment and forced to go out and express themselves through music and Main Producer in close cooperation with the great Egyptian director active on the international scene, pioneering several dance. But it is also the tale of a city, the great Cairo where impoverished Misr International Films Youssef Chahine for almost 30 years. The documentaries major co-productions, and as executive producer, neighbourhoods such as Boulaq, hide in the shadow of the tall buildings and giant 35, Champollion street she directed won many awards and critical recognition. providing comprehensive services to foreign towers which house the most powerful businessmen. Ghosts of the City is a unique 11111 Cairo - Egypt Her current project, Misr Film Focus, is dedicated to assist companies filming in Egypt. story, sung, danced, played, written and directed by those Egyptian youths who have Ph. +2 01005220086 and produce emerging Egyptian talents. fought for their rights for 18 days in Tahrir square. Fax +2 0225788033 [email protected] MArIANNE KHoUrY www.misrinternationalfilms 1999 the times of Laura .com Director’s Statement FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Slum areas are sweeping through Cairo filled with a young, marginalized generation. 2004 Women who Loved Cinema They roam the city trying to make a living through their own means, though not FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Estimated budget always legally. They have an enormous energy that goes wasted. So, eventually, drugs € 1.000.000 2010 Zeal become as important as food, to them. I lived with them, laughed with them and FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Financing in place fought with them on the square. I felt close to them, at least close enough to feel their € 100.000 2010 Venice Film Festival: Nominee pain and suffering. When the January 2011 revolution started, they saw a glimpse of 2011 Dubai Film Festival: FIPRESCI Award hope in its slogan; a hope to achieve their dream for social justice. Their eyes Financiers/partners shined with hope for a better tomorrow, where they could find a place for themselves. already involved MoNtASSEr HEGAZY The purpose of writing this film was to depict an accurate account of their life, 2014 rosewood Misr International Films struggles and simple dreams through a musical drama. Despite the rarity of Egyptian (Egypt): € 100.000 SHORT DOCUMENTARY musicals, music is still the fastest way to bring joy to Egyptians. Although this film 2007 Halawat rouh might not solve their problems, it could bring music to their ears and a smile to their SHORT DOCUMENTARY face. I was looking for a way to help them and make them happy. I don’t know if I have 2004 train to Marg succeeded. But I know for sure that I enjoyed what I wrote. For, writing about them SHORT FILM and for them is a true joy! 2007 ramses Wagon SHORT DOCUMENTARY 2007 Egyptian Film Festival: Winner

154 155 NCN ProjECtS Egypt In Which Land You Die Ahmed Maher

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Reyad immigrated illegally to Italy hoping to find a brighter future, but ended up in Born in Cairo, Ahmed Maher won the Grand Prix de Escape Home Production original title the crime world instead. Twenty years after not seeing his beloved mother, he learns Rome in Cinema, and received a grant to study in Italy. Escape Home Production can list, among its In che terra muori that she is terminally ill and arranges for her to come to Italy to receive better Upon his arrival in Rome in 1993, he studied Film and productions and documentaries, Every Day , English title medical care. Upon her arrival at the Rome airport, however, she unexpectedly dies Painting and later went on to work in cinema. In 1997 a three-part documentary about the Arabic In Which Land You Die thus turning their 20-year separation into their final farewell. Reyad wants to bury Screenplay by he became a member of UNESCO. He teaches directing, revolutions; Short Cuts , a two-part documentary his mother’s body in Egypt, but does not have the papers to legally do so, so asks his Ahmed Maher screenwriting and acting in a number of film schools in about independent film makers; the docu-fiction Format boss for help. In his violent and emotional quest to smuggle his mother’s body back different countries. In 2007 he was invited by the USA Far Away ; The City of Egypt , a TVfilm about Cairo; 35mm to Egypt, Reyad will discover his true identity and maybe even find redemption. State Department to hold seminars in several film and Capri , a TV series between Italy & Lebanon. Shooting Language schools. Over the past fifteen years Maher has written Italian and directed four short and medium-length films, Main Location Director’s Statement several episodes for American TV series, and six Rome One of the reasons that pushed me to explore this story was the duality of civilizations documentaries. He wrote and directed the feature film contained within it: the Roman civilization of life, and the Egyptian one of immortality. The Traveler , starring Omar Sharif, which was selected Raid left Egypt hoping to find a better life in Rome but ends up a criminal instead. He in the official competition at the 66 th Venice Film carries around a gun which he never uses, but just having it with him makes him feel Festival. safe and protected, maybe even immortal. His mother’s death becomes the death of Main Producer his history, of his Egyptian personality. The sweet nature of his relationship with his Escape Home Production 2011 Singing Freedom mother, his respect for death, and his Islamic subconscious push Raid to offer his own FEATURE DOCUMENTARY El Mohandesin life and body in order to save the dead body of his mother. Cairo - Egypt 2009 the traveler Mob. +20 1143223322 FEATURE FILM [email protected] 66 th Venice Film Festival 2005 From far Away Estimated budget SHORT DOCUMENTARY € 2.000.000 Financing in place € 200.000

156 157 NCN ProjECtS Estonia The Spy and the Poet Toomas Hussar

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Nobody knows what anybody knows Toomas Hussar (born 1962) is an award-winning Allfilm original title Gustav, an intelligence officer with a drinking problem, crosses paths with a Estonian film director, screenwriter and actor. Toomas Allfilm was established in 1995 with the aim to create Luuraja Ja Luuletaja beautiful gypsy woman whom he falls in love with. Unfortunately, she turns out to writes and directs for both cinema and the stage. an environment where exciting and original ideas English title be a Russian secret agent. The feeble mind of a man in love is further blurred by poet His 2012 film Mushrooming was a national box office meet the best professional management. The The Spy and the Poet Miku’s outlook on life that lacks of concepts which cripple the free spirit - discipline, Screenplay by hit, drawing up 75.000 spectators in a country with 1.3 company’s scope of activity varies from developing and order and allegiance. Gustav gets his act together and decides to reject the woman, Toomas Hussar million inhabitants. The film was a success at producing documentaries, series and quality features Format but the intelligence service finds it necessary for their flirtation to continue. This international festivals as well - it premiered at Karlovy to producing TV commercials. The company also 4K leads the ones involved into a complete dead end, as loyalty demands sacrifice. Vary and at the Toronto IFF. It won the FIPRESCI Jury provides services for producing international films. Shooting Language Prize at Mannheim-Heidelberg, the Best Actress Award Allfilm has received the Media Plus Slate Funding Estonian at Marrakech, and was recognized as the Best Estonian twice, and three of its productions have been Main Locations Director’s Statement Film of 2012. supported by Eurimages. Allfilm is the first film studio Tallinn, Estonia I’ve always wanted to confuse the audience. My intention is not to mock them, but in Estonia to have more than one producer onboard. rather to provoke them to rethink their moral beliefs, posing a series of paradoxes in 2012 Mushrooming Today, with a permanent staff of ten, Allfilm is the front of them. Hence morality becomes intuitive as opposed to rational, and it becomes FEATURE FILM biggest production company in Estonia with partners clear that interpretation of morality changes over time. Such interpretations are not Karlovy Vary 2012 in Great Britain, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, coherent in different cultures. Main Producer Toronto IFF 2012 Georgia, Russia, Latvia and the USA. The Spy and The Poet looks at a mixture of themes: patriotism, xenophobia, Best Estonian Film of 2012 Allfilm conservative and liberal attitudes to life, abstinence, slackness, order and chaos, loyalty Saue 11 1999 What Happened, Waldemar? and betrayal. These lines of power come out in the film through its three characters, SHORT FILM 10612 Tallinn – Estonia the three different life identities - a spy, a poet, and a gypsy. The main theme of the Ph. +372 6729070 film, in a more general sense, would be identity or self-determination of the characters, Fax +372 6729071 which will grow deeper as the events unfold. [email protected] www.allfilm.ee

Estimated budget € 720.000 Financing in place € 85.000

Financiers/partners already involved Estonian Film Institute (Estonia): € 29.000 Estonian Cultural Endowment (Estonia): € 6000 Allfilm (Estonia): € 10.000 EU MEDIA Slate Funding (EU): € 40.000

158 159 NCN ProjECtS Ethiopia Child of the Breast Haile Gerima

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Yetut Lij is set in northern Ethiopia in the late 1960s. It tells the story of Aynalem, a Haile Gerima is an independent Ethiopian filmmaker. Negodgwad Film Productions, Inc. original title peasant girl forced into a life of servitude. We first meet her at 13, as her single Best known for his acclaimed 1993 film Sankofa , his Negodwad Film Productions, Inc. is an independent Yetut Lij mother gives her up to a wealthy judge, hoping to give her a better life. filmography includes Teza (2008), Adwa (1999) and film company established by Haile Gerima in the English title When the judge is promoted to a position in Gondar, Aynalem goes with him, his Harvest : 3000 Years (1976), among many others. 1990s. In cooperation with its distribution arm, Child of the Breast wife and their son Kassahun. Screenplay by A graduate of the University of Southern California in Mypheduh Film, Inc., Gerima has developed, produced Five years later, in Gondar, Aynalem’s life is nowhere close to her mother’s dream. Haile Gerima Los Angeles (UCLA), Gerima is a Professor of Film at and released several personal films dealing with the Format She works as a slave under the scrutiny of the judge’s wife and spurns constant Howard University. He conducts production and African Diaspora, including Teza, Sankofa, Harvest: HD advances from Kassahun. scriptwriting workshops, nationally and abroad, and 3000 Years , and many others. Shooting Language At a celebration for the holy day of Timkit, she meets a policeman named Tilahun, invested the success of Sankofa into a film centre, English, Amharic, and they fall in love. The two begin to meet secretly and he proposes. Unfortunately, which goes by the same name. In the early 1990s, he Tigringya Kassahun has his way: he rapes Aynalem and she becomes pregnant. Then, after a also established the production company Negodwad Main Locations brutal beating from the judge’s wife, she miscarries. Desperate to help, Tilahun Films to support independent films in Ethiopia, as well Ethiopia secures a ride back to her village. But things don’t go according to plan. Five years as in the U.S. later, Aynalem is working as a “shackup girl” at an Asmara nightclub, where As a filmmaker, Gerima applies a critical lens: whether American GIs procure local women. Tilahun, newly released from prison, is on his documentary or drama, he believes cinematic expression way to find her. But as he quickly learns, Aynalem has a whole new life. Main Producer should inspire change and engage its community. Negodgwad Film Productions, Inc. 2008 teza 2714 Georgia Ave NW Director’s Statement FEATURE FILM During the 1960s, when Yetut Lij is set, Ethiopia had just emerged from the brutal and 1999 Adwa 20001 Washington DC fascist occupation of Italy, and the United States was an uncontested global authority, USA FEATURE DOCUMENTARY with a newly established military base in Asmara. 1993 Sankofa Ph. +1 (202)234-4755 It is this intersection between Western forces and local feudalism that compounds [email protected] FEATURE FILM Aynalem and Tilahun’s relationship, and brings the story to its emotional peak. 1976 Harvest: 3000 Years I dedicate this film to those who have left a blistering effect on my consciousness, FEATURE FILM Estimated budget specifically the young women who are typecast from birth as domestic servants. € 1.478.462 In many ways, Yetut Lij is a follow up to the principal issue I confronted in my last film Financing in place Teza , in which a peasant family struggles against a feudal system. With Aynalem’s story, € 1.090.000 I zoom in on the cavernous divides between wealth and power and use my narrative style to shift back and forth between the real and the make-belief; a technique meant to Financiers/partners amplify what history has fated, regardless of my character’s wishes and hopes. already involved EU/EDF contribution (EU): € 500.000 Negodgwad (Ethiopia): € 50.000 Fonds Sud Cinéma (France): € 140.000 Velvet Film (France): € 35.000 WDR and ARTE (Germany): € 350.000

160 161 NCN ProjECtS France/Nigeria Oil on Water Newton I. Aduaka

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Oil on Water tells the story of two journalists - keen, young Rufus and ageing, cynical Named by The Independent as one of the 50 best living Granit Films original title and alcoholic Zaq – as they search for the kidnapped wife of a European oil executive African artists, Newton I. Aduaka is a filmmaker whose Founded in 2009 by filmmakers Newton I. Aduaka and Oil on Water in the badlands of the Niger delta. But "the story is not always the final goal", as Zaq works hold incredible artistic and humanitarian value. Alain Gomis, documentary filmmaker Valérie Osouf Screenplay by tells Rufus at the beginning of their Conradian journey along the labyrinthine His 2007 film Ezra was named one of the most and actress Delphine Zingg, administered by Jean- Newton I. Aduaka tributaries of the delta. Misty and hazy in the day and illuminated by the orange glow Shooting Language important anti-war films ever made. Among other François Fernandez, and joined by intellectual property of gas flares by night, the hauntingly ecologically devastated landscape gradually English, Pidgin English, prizes, it was awarded the United Nation’s prize for lawyer and entrepreneur Dayo Ogunyemi, Granit Films Ijaw seeps into their increasingly challenged psyche. As their quest for the woman Peace and Tolerance. In 2001 Newton’s debut feature aims to make auteur films with social relevance, open Main Locations becomes personal, they find themselves lost in the multiple fragments of truth. film Rage , became the first wholly independently to the international market. Granit Films has to date Niger Delta, Nigeria Struggling upriver in a canoe, ferried by an old man and a boy, curiosity draws the financed film by a black filmmaker in the history of produced three feature films and three shorts: reporters into a twisted maze of silence, treachery, intrigue, love and mystery. In this British cinema to be released nation-wide. In 2002 Aujourd’hui by Alain Gomis (Golden Stallion Fespaco world that they enter, nothing is spoken yet all is inferred. Initially guided by the Aduaka was commissioned by the Society of French 2013, official competition Berlinale 2012); One Man’s mentor but soon finding himself alone, the apprentice must evolve quickly and learn Directors (SRF) and the Cannes Film Festival’s Quinzaine Show by Newton I. Aduaka (Critics’ Prize Fespaco 2013, to see things as they are. des Réalisateurs to make a short film on “Cinema and official selection Mill Valley Film Festival, special Globalization”. The result was Funeral , 2002. In 2007 screening at Jeu du Paume, Paris); National Identity a Aduaka was invited to hold a Master class at the Cannes documentary by Valérie Osouf and her short film Director’s Statement Film Festival. In 2008 the Berlin Film Festival invited Afterwards in coproduction with Divali Films. Esse and Main Producer Author Helon Habila and I are of the same generation: the one born in the mid-sixties at Granit Films him, as an expert, to speak on the aesthetics of cinema The Web are the two commissioned short films by the the onset of the Nigerian-Biafran war in which upwards of two million people lost their at the Berlinale Talent Campus. The same year he was NGO Global Dialogue, directed by Newton I. Aduaka. 14 rue Charles V lives; the end of the illusion of the so-called Nigerian independence. We were the 75004 Paris - France invited as a Speak at TED, “Africa: The Next Chapter”. The films have been translated into numerous generation that lived through not just the war, but also the half a dozen coups d’État and languages and broadcast widely online. Granit Films’ Ph. +33 750601648 equal numbers of military dictatorships that followed. We were a generation caught in the valerie.osouf 2013 one Man’s Show new slate of films currently in development include turmoil of change. He said if I ever considered adapting his novel Oil on Water for cinema, FEATURE FILM two feature films, a short film and one documentary: @granitfilms.com it was mine. I read the manuscript and it resonated for all of the above. There is a www.granitfilms.com Fespaco 2013: Critics Award Oil On Water by Newton I. Aduaka (development mythological and dreamlike nature to Oil on Water : two men, an old washed-out alcoholic 2007 Ezra funding from MEDIA, selected for L’Atelier du Festival journalist and his young protégé, in a canoe paddled along by an old man and a boy, in FEATURE FILM de Cannes & FilmCup, Brazil), Félicité by Alain Gomis Estimated budget search of a white woman. The three men and the boy in the canoe appear as if from thin € 2.471.394 Fespaco 2007: Grand Jury Prize (development funding from the CNC and the Lower air on the foggy dilapidating landscape. This landscape is somewhat post-apocalyptic. But 28 th Durban International Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize Normandy Region), Lost Child by Abdou Ndiaye Khadre this is not a film set sometime in the future. This is the Niger delta; this is now. Who is the Amiens International Film Festival 2007: Grand Jury Prize (short) and Colonial Remix by Valerie Osouf woman they seek? Or perhaps better still, who are these men and the boy? What are the Sundance Film Festival 2007: World Cinema (documentary). two journalists really looking for? With Oil on Water , I want to explore, cinematically, the Competition Nominee ecological disaster sweeping through our time, across the globe. This is the single most Critics’ Week, Festival du Cannes 2007: Fipresci Award important problem staring humanity in the face today. As filmmakers, we set out to 2001 rage engage an audience in a story, something conjured up from imagination. We tell our FEATURE FILM stories, but how much of the meaning of the story do we communicate? Is there one Fespaco 2001: Prix Oumarou Ganda, Best First Feature meaning to a story, or does an audience devise its own meaning? To resolve this enigma, I Pan-African Film Festival Los Angeles 2001: have offered one story told through multiple characters; Rufus’s story, Zaq’s story, Isabel’s Best Director, First Feature story, Solomon’s story… each, a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that resonates to form the whole. OCIC Award On the surface, the story is a straight, linear narrative (two local journalists set out on a journey along the river, into the heart of the Niger delta in search of a Woman). But to tell that story a certain deconstruction and reconstruction of the elements, visual metaphors and symbolisms are necessary.

162 163 NCN ProjECtS France 9 Fingers F.J. Ossang

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile As evening approaches, an unexpected snowstorm hits a Mediterranean town, F.J. Ossang is a living cult legend. A writer, musician CDP original title forcing the trains at a station to halt. Magloire steps off one of the trains to smoke a and film director, his books include Génération Néant Since 1994, Catherine Dussart has produced and co- 9 Doigts cigarette, but flees upon the sight of the police checking everyone’s ID. (Warvillers & Via Valeriano, 1993), L’Ode à Pronto produced feature films and documentaries through English title Magloire runs into Delgado, a man on the brink of death. In an effort to save his life, Rushtonksy (Warvillers, 1994), Au bord de l’Aurore her company CDP. Credits include The Missing Picture 9 Fingers Magloire inherits a stack of cash from the dying Delgado. Screenplay by (Warvillers, 1994), Les 59 jours (Diabase, 1999), by Rithy Panh (the Un certain regard Award at the Real trouble begins when the Kurtz Gang chase down Magloire, making him their F.J. Ossang Lascapeetsilence – postfacedeClaudePélieu Cannes Film Festival and was the Academy Award Format captive and eventually their accomplice. Magloire strikes a deal with them. That is (LaNotonecte, 2000), Tasman orient (Diabase, 2001), nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014), Araf 35 mm what he does: he makes deals, he strives to survive and adapt. He has nothing to lose. W.S. Burroughs (J.M. Place, 2007), Hiver sur les by Y. Ustaoglu (Venise, Abu Dhabi Black Pearl Award, Shooting Language The climate situation degenerates. As Europe freezes over, the only thing to do is continents cernes (Le Feu Sacré, 2012), and Mercure Tokyo 2012), Goltzius by P. Greenaway (Rome 2012), French flee. The whole gang evacuates aboard the cargo ship Sri Ahmed Volkenson 5, Insolent (Armand Colin, 2013). Duch , Master of the Forges of Hell by R. Panh (Cannes Main Locations secretly carrying polonium. Ossang’s music group MKB Fraction Provisoire, 2011), Bassidji by M. Tamadon (Grand Prize of the France, Portugal The gang realizes that the ship has been circulating around an island of waste, founded in 1980, has released nine albums, and international competition of the Jihlava film attracted to it almost like a magnet. composed and performed for Ossang’s films. international in Czech Republic), Nos lieux interdits by L. Poison and general madness invade the ship. With a polluted sea full of floating Ossang’s films have been selected and screened in Kilani (Nantes, Beyrouth 2009), The Sea Wall by R. Main Producer containers, even time and weather have stopped functioning “normally”. As cynicism major festivals around the world, many of which have Panh (Toronto, Rome 2009), Paper cannot wrap up CDP predominates on the ship, the concepts of man, woman and climate cease to exist. honoured the director with dedicated retrospectives. embers by R. Panh (Fipa d’Or 2007), Serko by J. Farges 25 rue Gambetta Realizing that the ship has no real destination, the gang decides to set fire to the (Antalya, Los Angeles 2006), Roots by P. Lounguine 92100 Boulogne ship and board the lifeboats towards a new land… or is it the same one, just seen 2011 Dharma Guns (Sotchi, Haifa 2006), The burnt Theatre by R. Panh Billancourt - France from a different angle? FEATURE FILM (Cannes 2005), Dunia by J. Saab (Cairo 2006), La petite Ph. +33 146050022 Venice Film Festival 2010 chartreuse by J.P. Denis (London, San Francisco 2005), Fax +33 1 46050259 2008 Vladivostok Tycoon by P. Lounguine (Jury Award Cognac 2003), [email protected] Director’s Statement EXPERIMENTAL FILM Warm Water Under a Red Bridge by S. Imamura www.cdpproductions.fr I want to combine the atmosphere of a classic film noir with the fury of old maritime Curtas Vila Do Conde 2009: Prix du Film Expérimental (Cannes 2001), The Wedding by P. Lounguine (Cannes adventures, and explore themes such as solitude, power and money in a world whose 2008 Ciel Eteint 2000 –Best Actors), A matter of taste by B. Rapp oSS/100 Films ever-changing climate becomes one of the characters. FEATURE FILM (Cognac 2000 – Best Film and Critics Award, 5 & Documents I don’t want to approach these themes by making a “catastrophe” film, but rather I 2006 Silencio Nominations, César 2001) Kanzo Sensei by S. Imamura 2 bis rue Dupont de l’Eure want to return to the roots of noir films. I want to film a small group of men who know FEATURE FILM (Cannes 1998). 75020 Paris – France all about catastrophe, both personal and social, and will therefore not cave into panic. Prix Jean Vigo 2007 Ph. +33 666062328 At the same time their personal natures start to dissolve under the effects of cynicism. 1998 Docteur Chance oSS/100 Films & Documents b.satarenko.gmail.com Man, woman and climate cease to exist. FEATURE FILM OSS/100 films & documents was founded in 2005 by www.fjossang.com Realizing that the ship has no real destination, Kurt’s men decide to set fire to their ship and Locarno Film Festival 1997: Official Selection F.J. Ossang and other associates. The company owns venture towards a new land… or could it be the same land, just seen from a different angle? 1991 Le tresor des Iles Chiennes the rights to most written and directed films by F.J. Estimated budget The story of The Ghost Ship, or The Flying Dutchman, becomes more than just a mere FEATURE FILM Ossang, such as: Zona Inquinata (1983), La derniere € 1.981.513 legend or curse, it becomes a destiny. ‘Everything can mysteriously, or absurdly, begin Belfort Film Festival 1990: Grand Prix enigme (1982), L’affaire des divisions morituri (1984), Le Financing in place all over again’. The film will be shot both in colour and in black and white, using 1984 L'affaire des divisions Morituri tresor des iles chiennes, Docteur chance (1998). € 500.000 monochromatic plates to achieve the dream-effect of polar nights. The whole film will FEATURE FILM OSS/100 has also produced the following F.J. Ossang be haunted by disruptions like change in navigation and of the extreme weather Cannes Film Festival 1985: Perspective Selection films: Silencio (2006 – Prix Jean Vigo 2007), Ciel eteint Financiers/partners conditions (rain, snow, storms, lightning and thunder); while the imminent danger of (2008), Vladivostok (2008 – Prix du Film Expérimental, already involved the unpredictable cargo will only add more tension. Curtas VilaDo Conde 2009), and Dharma guns (2011). CNC _ Avance sur recettes The ship’s passengers are locked in a broken and decaying hotel in the middle of the The company is currently developing Ossang’s new (France): € 500.000 ocean, much like being stuck in a spaceship in the depths of space. feature film project 9 Doigts .

164 165 NCN ProjECtS Hong Kong Nessun dorma Yim Ho

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Princes from all over Asia travel to find the legendary forbidden princess: the Yim Ho is a world-renowned director from Hong Kong. Seasonal Film Corporation original title beautiful Turandot. But to win her heart and break her solemn vow, ‘No one will ever His film The Sun Has Ears won the Best Director and the Hailed as one of Hong Kong’s most innovative film- Nessun dorma possess me!’, they must solve three enigmas: what is born each night and dies each International Film Critics awards at the Berlin Film makers, Ng See Yuen started his career in the film Screenplay by dawn? What flickers red like a flame, but is not fire? What is cold as ice, but burns Festival. Homecoming won a total of six awards at the industry in 1967. Yim Ho, Grady Granros like fire? Failure to solve them will lead to death by decapitation. In 1917 Italy, Format Hong Kong Film Awards and it was recognized as one of Since 2002, Ng has been running his own group of Giacomo Puccini is battling a terminal illness while striving to finish his opera 35mm the hundred movie classics in China. The Day the Sun Cineplex theatres in the main cities of China under the Shooting Language Turandot. His wife, Elvira, suspects he is having an affair with their young maid, Turned Cold won both Best Director and Best Film awards brand name UME. UME is now composed of 22 Chinese, English, Italian Doria Manfredi. Elvira blindly accuses Doria and slanders her. In the end, Doria at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Red Dust won Cineplex complexes situated in Beijing, Chongqing, Main Locations commits suicide and Elvira breaks down. eight awards at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Festival. Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Italy, China Meanwhile in China, apprentice monk Calaf struggles to solve the riddles to win Nantong, Ningbo and Jiaxing, with 350 screens Turandot’s heart. A wise, elder monk, and a brave slave-girl, Liu, become his allies. 2012 Floating City altogether. Each Cineplex is designed to accommodate Liu’s sacrifice in the final act of the opera awakens Doria’s ghost and Puccini’s guilt. FEATURE FILM the most advanced audio-visual technologies in line The ailing composer looks for some kind of resolution in his work and private life. 2004 A West Lake Moment with the five-star standard. FEATURE FILM Among Ng’s many achievements, he also holds office 2001 Pavilion of Women in the following organizations: Director’s Statement FEATURE FILM - Chairman of Hong Kong Film Awards Association Main Producer None Shall Sleep is a love story that travels across time and space, interweaving Seasonal Film Corporation 1997 Kitchen (1995-2000) th the true story of Puccini’s life with the drama of his renowned opera about the FEATURE FILM - Advisor of Hong Kong International Film Festival Flat H, 12 Floor, Kim Tak legendary Chinese princess, Turandot. Building, 328 Nathan Road 1996 the Sun Has Ears - Advisor of Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services None Shall Sleep brings together an international cast in a dramatic, action-filled, FEATURE FILM Department Kowloon, Hong Kong and completely original imagining of Puccini's Turandot, the beautiful princess Ph. +852 23856125 1994 the Day the Sun turned Cold - Member of Hong Kong Film Services Advisory who is as alluring as she is deadly. FEATURE FILM Committee Fax +852 27700583 Set to be stunningly designed and photographed, and accompanied by the most [email protected] 1991 King of Chess - Member of Selection Committee of HKSAR romantic music the world has ever known, None Shall Sleep will take audiences FEATURE FILM - Member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative from the Eastern and Western realms on a sumptuous, cinematic journey about 1990 red Dust Conference, Shanghai Committee Estimated budget creation and the power of love. € 8.820.000 FEATURE FILM Financing in place 12 Taiwan Golden Horse Film Awards nominations € 4.410.000 1986 the Happening FEATURE FILM Financiers/partners 1984 Homecoming already involved FEATURE FILM Seasonal Film 10 Hong Kong Film Awards nominations Corporation (Hong Kong): 1978 the Extra € 4.410.000 FEATURE FILM

166 167 NCN ProjECtS Italy The Secret of Caravaggio Paolo Benvenuti, Paola Baroni

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile On October 9 th 1608, Caravaggio lands in Sicily after escaping from his prison in After completing his Art studies at the Istituto d’Arte Movie Factory S.r.l. original title Malta. He is sentenced to death for murder, and the Pope’s spies are out to arrest and the Magistero in Florence, Paolo Benvenuti turned Movie Factory S.r.l. is an independent motion picture Il Segreto di Caravaggio him. In Syracuse, the fugitive is welcomed by his friend Marino Minniti, who to cinema and started making short films. In the early production and distribution company founded in 1996 English title introduces him to the archaeologist and historian Vincenzo Marabella. Marabella 70s, in cooperation with RAI, he directed a medium- by Francesco Paolo Montini. Movie Factory has The Secret of Caravaggio commissions a painting from Caravaggio, who needs lenses and mirrors to create the Screenplay by length film of historical and cultural value: Medea, il produced and distributed various feature length films, “optic room” to paint. Having studied Archimedes’ burning mirrors for years, Paolo Benvenuti, teatro di Maggio di Buti , which participated at the short films and documentaries, among which: feature Paola Baroni Mirabella personally gives Caravaggio all the equipment he needs. As the painter Berlin Film Festival in 1973. After working as a film Perfidia (2013, HD) by Bonifacio Angius, presented Format hides in an abandoned fort, building the complex instrument that projects the volunteer assistant to directors such as Roberto in the International Competition at the 67 th Festival of HD images of the models on the canvas, Minniti tells Mirabella (and us) the Rossellini, Jean Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, in Locarno; various documentary programs for the RAI Shooting Language extraordinary becoming of Caravaggio’s technique, as we watch the glorious 1982 Benvenuti founded the cineclub ‘Arsenale’ in Pisa, channels between 2009 and 2011; the feature film La Italian creation of one of Caravaggio’s most innovative works: The Burial of Saint Lucy. one of Tuscany’s most popular film club associations, canarina assassinata (2008, 35mm) by Daniele Cascella; Main Locations Before the enormous painting is exhibited on the day of the Saint’s feast, December which to this day holds over 10,000 subscribers. In 1988 the feature film Mala Tempora (2008, HD) by Stefano Sicily, Italy 13 th , Caravaggio has already escaped. Benvenuti debuted with his feature film Judas’ Kiss , Anselmi; the feature film Basta un niente (2006, HD) by which received critical acclaim at the Venice Film Ivan Polidoro. Festival that same year, when it participated in the Main Producer Director’s Statement Official Selection. He directed Confortorio in 1992, When it comes to period films, I have always had to face the issue of understanding the Tiburzi in 1996, Gostanza da Libbiano in 2000 and Movie Factory S.r.l. reality of a certain era from that era’s point of view. Through History of Art, we can see Lungotevere Flaminio, 80 Secrets of State in 2003. In 2001, he created the Cinema how men of the Middle Ages had a different vision of the world from men of the school ‘Intolerance’ in Viareggio. With the 00196 Rome – Italy Renaissance who, in turn, had a different vision from the period that followed, and so on. Ph. +39 063232937 collaborators and students of the school, and with the Thanks to the images that have been passed on to us, I was able to pick up on these collaboration of photographer Enzo Cei, Benvenuti Fax +39 063232937 thought mutations, and I resorted to the screen to recreate the look of the period I was movie_factory worked on Puccini and the Girl , the story of the narrating. But more often than not, the historical aesthetic I was going for ended up disquieting incidents of the life of Giacomo Puccini. @hotmail.com being similar to the present. I therefore looked back in time for an “accomplice” who, www.moviefactorysrl.com The feature film was released in theatres in 2008, in much like myself, expressed his repudiation for the times he lived in by creating works of occasion of the celebration of the 150 th year ethical vision to counterbalance ones of corruption. And so I found Michelangelo Merisi anniversary of the composer’s birth. Estimated budget da Caravaggio. Making a film about him and the mystery of his paintings meant I could € 1.600.000 express, metaphorically, the ethics of aesthetics. To do this, I needed to find out how he 2008 Puccini and the Girl Financing in place created the violent realism in his paintings, which continues to marvel us today. € 480.000 FEATURE FILM We know of the rigor with which Caravaggio faced his works, much like a film: he 2003 Secrets of State turned to the streets to look for the protagonists of his paintings, his “actors”, and FEATURE FILM Financiers/partners directed them as they played their part. He used a mirror to move the light of the sun already involved 2000 Gostanza da Libbiano on their bodies, having them gently surface from the darkness in which they were FEATURE FILM Movie Factory S.r.l. (Italy): usually set. Thanks to this light, he bestowed immortality to his actors. Doesn’t cinema € 320.000 1996 tiburzi perform much the same phenomenon? FEATURE FILM Financial Investors (Italy): One could think that the elements in common between Caravaggio and a filmmaker € 160.000 1992 Confortorio today would end here, when in fact, there is a theory (that I believe) that this FEATURE FILM extraordinary painter, after placing his “actors” on a scene, reproduced their image on 1988 judas’ Kiss a canvas with the help of a darkroom, the predecessor of cinema. FEATURE FILM

168 169

NCN ProjECtS Italy Menocchio Alberto Fasulo

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio (1526 - 1599), was the miller of a small Born in 1976, Alberto Fasulo started working in the film Nefertiti Film Srl original title town north east of the Italian Alps. He taught people to read and write in the hopes industry as an assistant director on fiction and creative Nefertiti Film is an independent production company, Menocchio that they could learn to think for themselves. He wanted a better world, where men documentaries, learning the trade on film sets. In 2008 located in Friuli Venezia Giulia, which operates both English title loved each other before they loved God. Although a man of faith, he condemned the he directed and produced his first feature length on a national and international level. Its productions Menocchio Roman Church at a time when it was desperately trying to resist the Lutheran reform Screenplay by documentary Rumore Bianco , which was selected by are always highly researched and have a strong by controlling the minds and consciences of the people. Menocchio openly criticized Alberto Fasulo, many international film festivals and distributed in authorial feel. Enrico Vecchi the methods and privileges of the Church, and accused priests of being more theatres in Italy. Declared ‘a new and promising Format interested in material wealth than in the wellbeing of the poor. By order of the Holy author’ by the Italian press, in 2013 he directed his first 1:85 Roman Inquisition he was put on trial and burned to death in the square of fiction film Tir , which won the Marc’Aurelio Award for Shooting Language Latin, Portogruaro, Venice, in a morbid, public spectacle that was to serve as a warning to Best Film at the Rome Film Festival. Furlan, Vernacular whoever dared follow his example i.e. that of a free man, determined to think for Main Locations himself and to question the dogmas of the Catholic faith. Friuli, Alps of North-East 2013 tir Italy, Venice, Vatican, FEATURE FILM North-West Slovenia 8th International Rome Film Festival: Director’s Statement Golden Marc’Aurelio for Best Film Choosing to tell Menocchio’s story means invoking the freedom of thought everyone is 2010 Break Main Producer entitled to but which is sometimes denied, knowingly or not. It means making a Nefertiti Film Srl SHORT DOCUMENTARY distinction between religion and faith, where the first is created by humans for humans, 2011 JJA Jazz Award ‐ New York: Finalist via P. Amalteo, 68/B while the second is perceived and lives within humans. 33078 San Vito al 2010 Act of Contrition Furthermore, it means looking at my cultural roots and those of my country, of my SHORT FILM Tagliamento (PN) - Italy continent and every other place where power has crushed (and continues to do so) the Mob. +39 3389429241 2011 Vision du reel ‐ Nyon: International Competition right to free will. Menocchio is a character beyond his time; he is universal and 2008 White Noise [email protected] contemporary because he wants to evoke the right to one’s own freedom of thought. www.nefertitifilm.it FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Menocchio is neither a saint nor a holy messiah, he is made of flesh and blood; he is a man Ischia Film Festival: Ischia Award for Documentary who is unable and unwilling to be denied of his own mind, not even in front of death. Estimated budget Golden Ciak: Nomination for Best Debut Film € 1.572.000 Financing in place € 34.000

Financiers/partners already involved Nefertiti Film Srl (Italy): € 10.000 Fondo audiovisivo Friuli Venezia Giulia - Development (Italy): € 24.000 Nora Film (Slovenia): € 5.000

172 173 NCN ProjECtS Italy Driftwood Valentine Giovanni Maderna

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Valentine Fitzclare lives on a barge moored on a London canal. A curtain of mystery Giovanni Maderna is an award-winning Italian Ipso Facto Productions original title and loneliness hides his obsession with filming everyone with an old video-camera, a director. His first short La Place (1995) won Best Film at Ipso Facto Productions is the production company of Driftwood Valentine relic from his darker days. When Valentine accidentally frames a pair of young lovers the first edition of Nanni Moretti’s Sacher Festival and producer Christine Alderson . Her last film Snow in Screenplay by trying to escape with the help of an attractive middle-aged woman, he finds a new his first feature This Is The Garden (Questo è il giardino , Paradise , the debut of Andrew Hulme, was officially William Brookfield, light and strength. Giovanni Maderna 1999) won the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film selected in Un Certain Regard Cannes ’14, represented Format at the Venice Film Festival in 1999. internationally by The Match Factory. It will be released 16mm & Mini DV He also co-directed Heaven Without Earth (Cielo senza in the UK by Artificial Eye on February 15 th . Shooting Language Director’s Statement terra , 2010) with Sara Pozzoli, and Carmela, Saved By Other credits include : Irina Palm directed by Sam English Through the act of filming, Valentine Fitzclare meets two lovers escaping from their The Buccaneers (Carmela, salvata dai filibustieri , 2012) Garbarski and starring Marianne Faithfull, which was Main Locations past, and his neighbour on the canal, George, a middle age attractive woman. In co-directed with Mauro Santini, both of which selected In Competition at the prestigious 57 th Berlin London, Kent helping each other, they become somewhat of strange family. premiered in the official selection at the Venice Film Film Festival 2007 and won the Screen International’s I loved the idea of a “normal” person who never reckoned he had a talent or something Festival. Maderna is also a freelance lecturer in various Critics Jury Award, and Valhalla Rising by Nicolas to say, and then suddenly, by accident, have his world turned upside down. Like any universities and films schools such as Milano Film Winding Refn ( Drive ) which premiered in Toronto, real artist, Fitz will keep on filming not because he wants to, not because he has to, but School, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, IULM starring Mads Mikklesen ( Casino Royale ). because he can. (Milano) and SUPSI (University High School of Italian A moving and gripping film, Driftwood Valentine will show the city of London from Main Producer Switzerland). As a producer, in 2007 Maderna founded the unusual point of view of its waterways. It will draw from my experience with the company Quarto Film, which has produced Ipso Facto Productions artists and filmmakers who, much like people who live on the London canal barges, live 56 Cambridge Road documentaries and feature films like Il paese sottile by in town and at the same time out of it. There is a border, both real and symbolic, Filippo Ticozzi, Il figlio di Amleto (The Son of Hamlet) by TW1 2HL Richmond between the “water people” and those who live on the “main land”. United Kingdom Francesco Gatti, Et mondana ordinare by Daniela Ph. +44 1912302585 Persico and Cielo senza terra (Heaven Without Earth) by [email protected] Giovanni Maderna and Sara Pozzoli. www.ipsofactofilms.com 2012 Carmela, saved by the Buccaneers Estimated budget FEATURE FILM € 2.000.000 Venice Film Festival 2012 Financing in place 2010 Heaven without earth € 700.000 FEATURE FILM Venice Film Festival 2010: Financiers/partners Official Selection Venice Days already involved 2006 Schopenhauer Cinedea (Italy): FEATURE FILM € 300.000 Locarno Film Festival 2006 Tax Credit (UK): 2001 Imperfect Love € 250.000 FEATURE FILM Regione Lazio (Italy): Venice Film Festival 2001 € 150.000 1999 this is the Garden FEATURE FILM Venice Film Festival 1999: Best Debut Film Award

174 175 NCN ProjECtS Italy The Bizarre Journey of The Soul Traveler Manetti Bros.

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile The gold-embroidered silk Dharani sutra quilt was created during the late Qing The Manetti Bros. are known in the panorama of Huang Chao Ying Shi Gu Fen You Xian Gong Si English title dynasty and was handed to the Italians as a token of peace during the Eight-Alliance Italian cinema for their love and knowledge of films, In 1998, independent producer Tu Yuling established The Bizarre Journey of versus Emperor China warfare. The quilt mysteriously disappeared midway during the genre or not. They began their career directing several his own production company Huang Chao Ying Shi Gu The Soul Traveler transition. Legend has it that the quilt has magical powers that can render one videos for cinema, such as DeGenerazione in 1995 (the Fen You Xian Gong Si . Screenplay by invincible and can even bring someone back from the dead… Modern Beijing 2014: Zhong Hua Fu, episode Consegna a domicilio ), wich won the Audience After just a year, Tu Yuling's company cooperated with Quentin, a young Italian Interpol agent, worked undercover during a mission Michelangelo La Neve Award at the Myfest in Cattolica, and Torino Boys in Mainland China and the Xi'an Film Studio to produce Shooting Language sponsored by the Chinese and Italian governments to retrieve the Dharani sutra quilt. 1997 (Special Jury Prize at the Turin Film Festival). In the film adaptation of the award-winning novel Bai Chinese, English With the national treasure now successfully retrieved, Quentin is briefed by his 20 00, the two filmmakers directed their debut feature Mian Hua by 2012 Nobel Prize-winner Muo Yan. This Main Locations Chinese commander Song Cheng and Italian head agent Joey Vincitori to ensure the film Zora the Vampire , inspired by Mario Bava. They went was followed by the film Qu Lian De Gu shi directed by China, Shanghai, Beijing quilt is safely transported to the museum, where it will be donated during a on to direct the thrillers Piano 17 (2005) and The Arrival of Ling Qing Jie and starring Wu QiLong, Su You Peng and ceremony. But on the day, Quentin and his fellow agents are ambushed by the Wang , and the horror films Human Test and Paura 3D Hao Lei. In 2000, in collaboration with the Shanghai Shadow Serpent, a deadly Japanese mercenary group. Quentin watches Agent Song (2012). Their most recent feature Song’e Napule Film Studio, for the first time under Tu Yuling Cheng get executed by none other than Joey Vincitori who turns out to be the premiered at the Rome Film Festival in 2013 and was very Company's label, came the film Yuan, Miao Bu Ke Yan mastermind behind the set-up. While fighting for the possession of the quilt, well received both by critics and audiences, resulting one starring Mainland Star Zhao Wei, He Run Dong and Wu Quentin is shot in the chest, just as he is holding the quilt. Lightning flashes and he of the most awarded films of 2014 Italian Cinema. Qi Long. As of 2002 the company has produced a long vanishes… Quentin wakes up and finds himself dressed as a cowboy back in 1900 Main Producer streak of films which focused on the values of modern China. He learns that he wasn’t physically transported to the past, but that his soul Huang Chao Ying Shi Gu 2013 Song’e Napule elderly families: Pai Fan, Wo De Zuo You Shou, Ni Shi Fou and mind were taken through a time portal and reincarnated into the body of his Fen You Xian Gong Si FEATURE FILM Yi Rang Ai Wo . To add to the list of quality films is Ye ancestor Guerino, who was a traveler in China in 1900. Discovering that the Dharani Taiwan Shi, Nan Gang Rome Film Festival 2013: World Premiere Hongwei’s Ai Zi De Tian Kong-Xin Ru Ping Hua . In 2010 sutra quilt was responsible for the time transport, Quentin embarks on a journey to Qu, Xiang Yang Lu 196 Nastri D’Argento 2014 : Best Comedy Award, Huang Chao Ying Shi Gu Fen You Xian Gong Si produced find it and get back to 2014. With everyone going after Quentin and the Dharani Gang, 27 Hao, 1 st floor Best Soundtrack Award its most influential movie yet: San Jiao Di , based on the sutra quilt, will Quentin, the Italian cowboy, be able to “kung fu” his way through 115 Taipei, Taiwan - China Italian Golden Globe 2014: Best Comedy Award award-winning novel by the same name by Cao the enemies and return to 2014? Ph. +886 227892532 David di Donatello 2014: Best Musician Award, Wenxun. Thanks to the film’s success, the company was Fax +886 227852532 Best Original Song Award placed in the list of the top quality Chinese production kings16600000 Director’s Statement 2012 Paura 3D companies operating in recent years. @hotmail.com Despite creating very different films every time, our love for mainstream crowd- FEATURE FILM christianbachini pleasing cinema, fantasy and adventure films is what ties them all together. We also 2011 the Arrival of Wang @hotmail.com always look for unlikely stories to tell; ones with characters that are deep and complex FEATURE FILM and unpredictable. We want to offer points of view on aspects of daily life in an 2009 Human test Estimated budget unconventional manner, challenging the boundaries of political correctness. FEATURE FILM € 2.370.000 We are intrigued and excited at the idea of shooting a film in China, a spy story with 2005 Piano 17 Financing in place elements of martial arts, adventure and fantasy. Such an endeavour fits perfectly with FEATURE FILM € 1.185.000 our identity as filmmakers, and we want to approach it in our usual, unique manner: 2000 Zora the Vampire with the ambition to make a classic, spectacular film with characters that are real and FEATURE FILM Financiers/partners deep, coated with our trademark sense of humour. already involved Private Investor (China): € 1.185.000

176 177 NCN ProjECtS Italy White Shadows Fabio Mollo

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Teenagers Andros and Alma are brother and sister. Though very different, they have a Writer and director born in Reggio Calabria, Italy, in Ascent Film original title very strong bond. They grew up in a house in the woods which the boy sees as a prison, 1980, Fabio Mollo studied filmmaking at the Centro Ascent Films was founded in 2003 as an independent White Shadows whilst the girl sees it as a warm and safe shelter. But both of them know it is the place Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and worked production company which supports the voices and Screenplay by that their father wanted them to live in, grow up in, and probably eventually die in. regularly as assistant director. visions of the emerging talents of the Italian and Fabio Mollo, Their father raised them in that place secluded from the civilized world for their own Damiano Brue' He directed several shorts and documentaries, including European audiovisual industry. Research, experience good, seeing it as the only way to protect them from the evil that lies beyond the nd th Format Al Buio (62 Venice Film Festival) and Giganti (53 and enthusiasm are the components which continue to HD forest. Forcing them to live in the dark of the night meant protecting them from the Berlinale, Best Short at the Torino Film Festival, the distinguish Ascent Film. The different professional Shooting Language evil “creatures”, that live and move in the daylight; those “white shadows” that get International Press Award at Clermont Ferrand). backgrounds of its members contribute to strengthen English inside your mind and force you to see what you don’t want to see, hear what you He was a selected participant of the Atelier de la the company’s relationship with producers, Main Locations don’t want to hear and do what you don’t want to do. Cinefondation du 64° Festival de Cannes and of the distributors, and Italian and foreign financiers. Thanks Ontario, Canada Talent Lab of the Toronto International Film Festival. to its relationship with talented screenwriters and He also won the Universal Filmmaster Program in Los directors, Ascent Film offers high quality standards of Director’s Statement Angeles, the Young Italian Filmmaker Prize in New filmmaking to productions that are accessible to all I come from a bad place which, as an adolescent, I dreamt of running away from. York, and the Torino Film Lab Production Award. audiences. The acquisition of literary rights for both When I finally did, I realized that, no matter how far away I escaped, that place would Il Sud è Niente (South is Nothing) , is his first feature films and TV projects is also at the core of Ascent Films. nd stay inside of me forever. On the 2 of March 1998, ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch film. It was presented at the 64° Berlinale, 38° Toronto Main Producer was kidnapped by a man from the street in front of her house. For 8 years she lived Ascent Film International Film Festival, 8°Rome Film Festival. Fabio segregated in the basement of her abductor’s house in a residential neighbourhood of an was nominated for Best New Director at the Silver Via Montello, 30 Austrian town, and despite having several opportunities to escape, she never did. Until 00195 Rome - Italy Ribbon Italian Film Critics Awards and the Italian one day she decided to simply walk away and ask for help, causing the suicidal death of Golden Globe Awards and won several national prizes. Ph. +39 0632600267 her kidnapper. Natascha is now free, but she has decided to buy the house in which she Fax +39 0632600270 was imprisoned to prevent it from being demolished. This was classified as Stockholm 2013 South is Nothing [email protected] Syndrome. Beyond the scientific term, this inability to flee from evil is a very human www.ascentfilm.com FEATURE FILM condition. This aspect is what inspired the idea for White Shadows . Alma is at the edge 64° Berlinale: Official Selection of discovering what she has always known within herself, and dealing with accepting the 38° Toronto International Film Festival: Official Selection Estimated budget truth. She always had the “key” to her freedom, but has always been afraid to use it. € 1.200.000 8° Festival Internazional del Film di Roma - Alice nella Andros represents rebellion and the instinct of survival: he pushes Alma to tear apart the Città: Official Selection Financing in place ‘Maya Veil’ (to quote Schopenhauer) and take hold of their own identity. Their bond is € 40.000 2010 Naples 24 based both on love and crime, something which Alma is more aware of than Andros. COLLECTIVE DOCUMENTARY In terms of writing, I want to focus on the characters and their upbringing, building 29° Torino Film Festival Financiers/partners up the tension and the moments of revelation, and investigating the boundary already involved 2007 Giants between truth and lie. I want to tell this story from the point of view of Alma, a young SHORT FILM Rai Cinema (Italy): woman who has always lived in a way which she thought was special, to then € 40.000 25° Torino Film Festival: Best Short discover it was all a lie; accepting this lie proves to be difficult, as it would mean losing 30° Clermont-Ferrand: Special Mention of the Press Jury the only life she thinks is possible. 58° Berlinale: Official Selection and Competition Visually, I want to bring to the screen the relationship between man and nature by avoiding the “supernatural” style, and focusing instead on what we see and what we think we see. I don’t want to show the white shadows entirely, but rather have them live in the verbal realm, exactly like the lies. White Shadows is a story which explores the strengths and weaknesses of the human soul, the transcendental aspect of nat ure and the mind. Freedom is not merely rebellion: it is first and foremost knowledge.

178 179

NCN ProjECtS Italy The Hamlet Method Marco Simon Puccioni

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Upon hearing of his parent’s decision to separate, teenager Matteo initially reacts Marco Simon Puccioni studied architecture in Rome Wider Films original title with indifference. But his emotional state is quickly altered since he won’t be facing and film at CalArts in Los Angeles. He directed several Established in 2012, Wider Films began its distribution Il Metodo Amleto a typical split, seeing as his parents are a gay couple. shorts and documentaries and made his feature film activities by acquiring art house titles such as English title All this could not happen at more confusing moment. Matteo has just befriended debut in 2002 with Quello Che Cerchi , nominated for Appartamento ad Atene , Miss Violence , Fruitvale The Hamlet Method school-mate Sara, developing more than just mere attraction for her. He soon Screenplay by Best New Director at the David di Donatello Awards. Station, The Congress and, more recently, the Italian realizes he must help his parents come together, and looks for help in his best friend Giovanni Cassinelli, His second feature Riparo opened at the Berlin Film comedy Maicol Jecson . Tommaso Renzoni, Mercutio, a young gay boy dealing with his own issues. Festival in 2007 and participated in over 100 Made up of a young and cosmopolitan team, in April collaboration Matteo decides to put on stage his parent’s love story, hoping that a trip down international festivals. The film won several awards 2014 Wider went on to extend its activities by by Robert Booth memory lane will help bring them closer again. But in the process, unforeseen events and was distributed in different countries. launching its own development department. Format HD take place, and in the end only friendship and love will eventually save the day. The feature documentary Il Colore delle Parole opened Wider aims to develop and produce international film Shooting Language at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. projects able to cater to audiences worldwide. English Come il Vento , his third feature, starring Valeria Golino, Main Locations Director’s Statement Italy, UK premiered at the Rome Film Festival in 2013. It was Many of the issues narrated in the script strike a personal chord with me, hence my recently released in France and Italy, and was highly drive to direct this film. acclaimed by the press. But the story has a universal appeal; it portrays a number of events that could occur in Main Producer Prima di Tutto , a self-filmed documentary on same-sex anyone’s future, including my own. It is told from the eyes of child, that could even be families, was aired by Rai and in other countries. He is a Wider Films one of my own years from now. P.za Manfredo Fanti 22 co-founder of the writers and directors guild "100 autori" Aside from my personal motivations, the film deals with the ever-changing landscape and “Ring”. 00185 Roma - Italy of “modern families” through the point of view of a teenager dealing with love for the Ph. +39 0683081055 first time, whilst trying to save his unconventional family. 2013 Like the Wind [email protected] The story deals with a father-son relationship in a family made up of two fathers and www.widerfilms.com FEATURE FILM no mother. It investigates what it means to be a son and a father, when you have no Rome Film Festival 2013 certainty on your blood ties. Estimated budget 2012 Before Anything Else € 1.504.286,32 FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Financing in place 2009 the Color of the Words € 100.000 FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Venice Film Festival 2009 Financiers/partners 2007 Shelter me already involved FEATURE FILM Wider Films (Italy): Berlin film festival 2007 € 100.000 2002 What are you looking for FEATURE FILM David di Donatello Awards: nominated for Best New Director

182 183 NCN ProjECtS Italy Sosia Zapruder

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile In a stately mountain landscape, the lives of Leslie, Jett and JD are marked by the David Zamagni and Nadia Ranocchi work together as 999 Films original title arrival of Bic Benedict, a controversial preacher and professional life-coach on a directors and filmmakers under the name Zapruder. 999 Films is a production company founded in 2011 by Sosia spiritual tour to promote his book and attract new followers. Zapruder’s research is based on a blend of artisanal two producers and one director, who joined forces to English title Bic spreads his doctrines through “Meetings” during which numerous good-will and autonomous practice, techniques of early cinema create daring films aimed at an international market. Lookalike citizens come together in the name of a religiously inspired credo that celebrates Screenplay by and theatre collaborations (with Motus, Fanny & The company has a strong background in music videos, wealth, honesty and collective growth. During the meetings, participants are called Nadia Ranocchi, David Alexander, Societas Raffaello Sanzio). Zapruder’s film advertising and branding and approaches feature films Zamagni, Claudia to overcome their fears by drinking strychnine and manipulating snakes in the name projects are flexible cinematic devices in which three- with youthful enthusiasm, but is backed up by 20 years Castellucci of the Holy Ghost, which symbolizes the breath of life and the promise of a new dimensional sound and tactile vision are a recurring of experience in making compelling, visionary and Shooting Language wisdom to come. When Bic is bitten by a snake and confronted with its deadly theme, often related to visual and performative arts. engaging video contents. In three years of activity, 999 Italian poison, he falls into a delirious quest leading all the protagonists to a crucial turn. This is what Zapruder defines Chamber Cinema, some Films has produced the thriller At the End of the Day , Main Locations From this point onwards, the characters take on a new dimension and cross paths at sort of incarnated environment and disembodied the coming-of-age comedy Maicol Jecson , and the Mountains TBD Jett’s Gas Station, a mimetic threshold where their destiny will be fulfilled. theatre. In 2000 they founded with Monaldo Moretti experimental documentary Glaucocamaleo , as well as ZAPRUDERfilmakersgroup, an art-house engaged in providing production services for foreign films independent movie-making. shooting in Italy (namely for Spring by J. Benson and Main Producer Director’s Statement Art Addict by L. Vreeland). 999 Films The idea of creating a visionary journey through a parallel territory has always been 2012 the rats Leave the Ship Via Emilio Faà di Bruno, 10 essential for our films. When it came to Sosia , we were driven by two elements: the actor- SHORT FILM Cinemaundici 00195 Rome - Italy idol figure, emphasizing the importance of imitation, and the film Giant , by George 2012 Pletora In 1998 Luigi Musini and Roberto Cicutto joined director Ph. +39 063724361 Stevens. We wanted to pick up on its trail and update the context without creating a SHORT FILM Ermanno Olmi, no longer in the executive board, in the [email protected] remake, but rather echo its imprint. For the atmosphere of the film, we were inspired by 2011 Spell production company Cinemaundici. They have co- www.999films.it the American Holiness Church, and by a new “generation” of followers (and the style of SHORT FILM produced Jacques Rivette’s Histoire de Marie et Julien , Ne their meetings) that emerged after Peter Adair’s documentary Holy Ghost People . 2010 joule touchez pas la hache and 36 Vues du Pic Saint Loup , Otar Cinemaundici SHORT FILM Ioselliani’s Lundi matin and Jardins en Automne, and Via Giuseppe Avezzana 51 2010 All Inclusive Ermanno Olmi’s Il mestiere delle armi , Cantando dietro i 00195 Roma - Italy MEDIUM FILM paraventi and Centochiodi . Ph: +39 06 45478610 2007 Daimon In 2014 the Company has presented Francesco Munzi’s olivia.musini MEDIUM FILM Black Souls in Venice Film Festival and TIFF and is in post @cinemaundici.it 2005 Morning Smile production with Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s new feature. www.cinemaundici.it SHORT FILM 2004 rebus per Ada Estimated budget SHORT FILM € 720.000 2002 Doggy bag with spring roll Financing in place SHORT FILM € 167.000 2002 j.G. SHORT FILM Financiers/partners 2002 totentanz already involved SHORT FILM 999 Films (Italy) + 2001 Spring roll Cinemaundici (Italy): SHORT FILM € 72.000 2000 H.o.L.Y. Mibac - Tax Credit (Italy): SHORT FILM € 95.000

184 185 NCN ProjECtS Luxembourg 1313 - Dante's Emperor Bady Minck

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile After 700 years Henri VII of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor, returns to this life in Born in Luxembourg, Bady Minck works as an artist Amour Fou Luxembourg Sàrl original title order to find out what remains of his family, his empire and his dream of an ideal and filmmaker in Luxembourg and Vienna. Her films Founded in Luxembourg in 1995 and in Vienna in 2001, 1313 - Dante's Emperor society. To master the journey to the numerous territories of his Empire, he uses have participated in over 600 international film Amour Fou Luxembourg and Amour Fou Vienna realize Screenplay by underground canals and tunnels. festivals, including Cannes and Berlin, and have artistically exceptional feature, documentary and short Guig Jost, Bady Minck While in this parallel world consisting of corridors, caves and rivers he meets an old Shooting Language received numerous awards and special mentions. films for the international market with international acquaintance, Dante Alighieri, who glorified and immortalised Henri in his Divine Luxembourgish, Italian, They have taken part in more than 40 retrospectives and, most frequently, European partners. Throughout German, French Comedy 700 years ago. Dante is still occupied with researching the inferno, in 4 continents. the process Amour Fou stands for vision and pushing Main Locations purgatory and paradise though now with the aid of advanced computer technology. Sonderzahl Verlag has published a book about her film the envelope, whether in regard to aesthetics, Luxembourg, Italy Whereas Henri VII is able to find only very few traces of his family in Luxembourg, he In the Beginnning was the Eye . Her work was presented production or distribution strategies. The focus is on finds much more has survived in Prague, Nuremberg and especially in Italy. Here he at the Biennale di Venezia, the Moscow Biennale, the European independent auteur cinema and the discovers not only magnificent statues and tombs but also a memorial culture that is Centre Pompidou in Paris and at the Lincoln Center of distinctive “handwriting” of the directors who work very much alive: everywhere he finds busy preparations underway to celebrate the New York. In 2009 Minck was a member of the Orizzonti with Amour Fou. The associate partners of Amour Fou 700 th anniversary of his death. jury at the Venice Film Festival. She is the founder of the Vienna and Amour Fou Luxembourg are Bady Minck 1313 - Dante’s Emperor shows that history is not past and done with but something production company Amour Fou Luxembourg, and a and Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu. that changes and is subject to continuous transformation. Historical figures live on founding member of Amour Fou Vienna. today in the deep layers of the subconscious of our planet and influence world events. Main Producer Amour Fou 2008 SEEMS to BE 49-51 rue de Warken SHORT FILM L-9088 Ettelbruck - Director’s Statement Berlinale 2008 I have always been fascinated by historical figures, whether real or mythical, and they 2007 FrEE rADICALS Luxembourg have inspired me in many ways. Henri VII, whose aim was, due to his role as Holy Ph. +352 8116811 FEATURE FILM Roman Emperor, to reunite the fragmented European empires, especially fascinates Biennale di Venezia 2007 Fax +352 81168182 me. I was amazed about Dante’s admiration for - as he called him - Arrigo VII, whom christian.mueller 2007 BEING AND NotHINGNESS he honoured in his Divine Comedy praising him as the ideal ruler and placing him in SHORT FILM @amourfoufilm .com Paradise. I picked up on the appeal of these two visionaries combined: a duality www.amourfoufilm.com IFF Rotterdam 2007 between art and politics, ruler and persecuted, Italian and Luxembourgish, past and 2005 tHE BEAUtY IS tHE BEASt th future. I am looking for a cosmos that unites two opposites, linking the long-gone 14 SHORT FILM Estimated budget century world to the present. I see Arrigo VII riding his horse as he explores the present- € 4.000.000 IFF Rotterdam 2005 day world, meets Dante in the underworld and explores the Inferno. I want to bring 2003 IN tHE BEGINNING WAS tHE EYE Financing in place Arrigo back to life at the age of 33, and I imagine him as strong and delicate as Joan of € 250.000 MEDIUM FILM Arc but also as curious as Don Quixote. Cannes 2003 The film will include the wonderful drawings from the Codex Balduini, which depict Financiers/partners Arrigo’s life as a sort of medieval comic-strip; some of this pictures will be re-enacted. already involved Mirroring Dante’s tripartite division of his Comedy, the film will have a three-part Film Fund Luxembourg structure: Arrigo’s life will be told based on three Italian legends. My aim is to FONSPA (Luxembourg): implement the visions which Dante created in his Divine Comedy into the present. The € 120.000 medieval scenes are supposed to be shot within a décor and architecture that are Amour Fou Luxembourg appropriately reconstructed through the use of 13 th and 14 th century paintings. Thus, € (Luxembourg ): 80.000 this technique allows creating a visual bridge between the high level of craft of that Amour Fou Vienna time and current tendencies. € (Austria ): 50.000 The film will be a retro-futuristic icon painting , an interlace of past, present and future.

186 187 NCN ProjECtS Netherlands Porcelain Janneke Boeijink

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Porcelain is the disturbing story, a nightmare even, of how a family, a relationship Jenneke Boeijink graduated in Psychology but also CtM Pictures original title and a social status succumb to the pressures of fate. Paul and Anna, a couple at the followed courses in film and TV sciences. At the Film CTM Pictures is run by Denis Wigman and Sander Porselein top of the social scale, have a son Thomas. Their lives are a carefully planned set of Academy she made several shorts including Iris, De Verdonk, combining over 30 years of experience in English title choices, decisions and goals. They have their own small world, consisting of three Hospita, Zo Terug , an interpretation of the Orpheus & producing feature films and documentaries. The Porcelain people and they are the only ones allowed to have control over their lives. But this Screenplay by Eurydice myth, and a documentary about the Pope’s projects developed by CTM Pictures are characterized conviction also makes them lonely, because they don't genuinely let anyone in, not Thibaud Delpeut, attitude on homosexuality, Dear Pope. Her graduation by originality and always have a commercial and Jenneke Boeijink even each other. When Thomas, out of nowhere, bites a classmate's arm, he cracks film Schermen won the Jury Award at the Milan I've international potential. This often leads to films with Format HD Anna and Paul's uninfringeable lives. Anna immediately becomes insecure, and the Seen Films International Film Festival. an artistic sensibility that appeal to a wide audience. It Shooting Language event touches upon her biggest fear: that she is not suited for motherhood. Paul Boeijink went on to make the short documentaries is the goal of CTM Pictures to continue producing films Dutch, French, Italian suppresses everything and brushes it off as being an accident. When Thomas ends Aviva and Iberia on composer Issac Albeniz. In 2010, her and documentaries on an international level. Therefore, Main Locations up in the hospital Paul can no longer deny that something real is going on. TV film Proces , about the impossible relationship co-operation with European and other international Netherlands, Belgium, Porcelain is a film about the disruptive effect of confronting what we don’t between a killer and the victim’s widow, was producers is essential to CTM Pictures’ success. Italy understand in our lives. It is also a film about the necessity of accepting that our nominated for Best TV Drama at the Dutch Film existence, as well as nature, is subject to chaos. Festival. In 2012 her TV film Terug was selected for competition at the Dutch Film Festival. Main Producer Boeijink teaches Film Studies at the University of CtM Pictures Amsterdam. Emmastraat 21 Director’s Statement 2012 terug 1211 NE Hilversum The world Paul and Anna have created for themselves is as sophisticated and fragile as Netherlands TV FILM the porcelain pieces Anna restores. There is no room in their lives for anything rough, Dutch Film Festival: in Competition Ph. +31 356474040 unpolished, or unannounced. There is a huge feeling of emptiness inside them and Fax +31 356474049 2010 Proces between them, but they deny it. The abyss inside each of them is covered up by the TV FILM [email protected] presence of the other person. This is symptomatic of the modern Western world, where www.ctmlevpictures.com Dutch Film Festival: Best TV Drama Nomination people now have full control over their fate, but are unable to carry this fate by 2008 Iberia themselves. There is no help from God or some other supreme authority, that can ward SHORT DOCUMENTARY Estimated budget off the fear and the feeling of endless futility. Being happy is an obligation and if you € 2008 Aviva 1.215.000 can't make this happen you only have yourself to blame. Financing in place SHORT DOCUMENTARY € 265.000 2007 Schemeren SHORT FILM Financiers/partners Milan I've Seen Films International Film Festival: already involved Jury Award Dutch Film Fund (Netherlands): € 225.000 CTM Pictures (Netherlands): € 40.000

188 189 NCN ProjECtS Peru Retablo Alvaro Delgado Aparicio

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Producers’ Profile Segundo Jimenez, a shy and reserved thirteen year old boy, lives with his father Noe During his university studies in Economics and Enid Campos graduated in Communication Sciences original title and his mother Anatolia in a remote community of the Peruvian Andes. Noe is Business Management, and Organizational from the University of Lima. She founded Chullachaki Retablo renowned for making Retablos (portable story boxes), and Segundo helps him in the Psychology, both in London, Alvaro Delgado Aparicio Producciones, a film production company dedicated to Screenplay by workshop and accompanies him on all his trips. Although their relationship is cold attended film directing workshops at the London Film developing projects that portray in a creative and Alvaro Delgado Aparicio, and distant like that of many fathers and sons in the Peruvian Andes, there is also Héctor Gálvez Academy. In 2010, he wrote and directed his first short economically viable way, Peru´s social urgencies. affection and it is more like one of a great master with his apprentice. Segundo Format film ¿Me Puedes Ver? (Can you see me?) which had its Chullachaki´s aim is to produce films of international 4K Red One spends almost all his time working on the Retablos rather than hanging out with world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It won quality, with worldwide commercial appeal, and Shooting Language friends, with the exception of Mardonio. Like all boys his age, Mardonio spends most the Audience and Jury award at the Latin American promoting co-productions between Peru and the rest Spanish of his time talking about women and sex. These conversations only make Segundo Film Festival. of the world. Main Locations uncomfortable but he goes along with them trying to hide his sexual inexperience. El Acompañante (The Companion) is his second short With nearly 15 years of experience, Campos has Ayacucho, Perú On one of their longer trips, Segundo accidentally sees his father having a sexual film as a writer and director which won the Peruvian produced over 20 Peruvian feature films including: encounter with a truck driver. This image makes such a strong impression on him that National Short film award and was a finalist at the 2013 Magallanes (Direc: Salvador del Solar, 2014), NN (Direc: he can’t bring himself to confront his father or even tell his mother what he Sundance Film Festival and Rotterdam International Héctor Gálvez, 2014); Viejos Amigos (Direc: Fernando witnessed. His admiration for Noe is destroyed. Segundo is not aware of this, but he Main Producer Film Festival. It has been officially selected in more Villarán, 2013) Climas (Direc: Enrica Perez, 2013); Las no longer works with the same enthusiasm, he questions all his father´s comings and SIrI Producciones than 80 film festivals around the world including Palm Malas Intenciones (Direc: Rosario Garcia-Montero, goings and no longer shares all the respect people have for the maestro Retablo Camino Real 390, Springs, Outfest, San Francisco, Indie Lisboa, La 2011); Sonidos Vivos (Direc: Luis Quequezana, 2010); maker. The confusion caused by what he has witnessed and which he keeps secret Torre Central, Piso 11, Habana, Miami, Dokufest, among others. Furthermore, Paraiso (Direc: Héctor Gálvez, 2009); Dioses (Direc: makes Segundo try to find ever increasing and explosive ways to demonstrate his San Isidro it had a Best Director nomination at the World Josué Méndez, 2008), El Acuarelista (Direc: Daniel own masculinity. If before he was trying to be like his father, now he is trying to break Lima 27, Perú. Independent Film Awards. Rodriguez, 2007); Madeinusa (Direc: Claudia Llosa, with his entire past. Ph. +511 5133030 At the moment, Alvaro is working on his first feature 2006); Dias De Santiago (Josué Méndez, 2003); Paloma In the midst of these contradictions, Noe’s homosexuality is discovered and he is Fax +511 5133050 length film Retablo through the Sundance Feature Film De Papel (Direc: Fabrizio Aguilar, 2004); El Destino No physically humiliated. All those who had previously respected him now ignore and [email protected] Program Lab which will enter in production in 2015. Tiene Favoritos (Direc: Alvaro Velarde, 2002). despise him and no longer want his sophisticated Retablos. Anatolia also leaves him. Retablo has already won the CINEREACH Foundation Many of these productions have won national and As Segundo is the only one who doesn’t abandon him, the degree of dependency he SHPN3 Films Feature Film Grant, and the Peruvian National Feature international awards and have been officially selected in has on him becomes stronger. Now the two men will try to live together, Selchower Str. 30 Film Project Award by DAFO, Ministerio de Cultura. many international film festivals including Sundance, accompanied only by the story-box figurines who just as throughout the whole story, 12049 Berlin - Germany Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Rotterdam, among others. continue to observe them. [email protected] 2010 Can you see me? Campos was the producer of the short film El www.shpn.de Director’s Statement SHORT FILM Acompañante (The Companion , 2012), written and What interests me more than capturing the transformations of human relationships Latin American Film Festival: Audience and Jury award directed by Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio. Estimated budget are the different levels of complexity that one finds in any human bond. Particularly, 2013 the Companion € 697.000 the way sensuous internal images are communicated through the eyes, ears or pores of SHORT FILM SHPN3 Films Financing in place the skin. Retablo is a portrait of a particular father-son relationship from the point of Sundance Film Festival: Official Selection Simone Schuchert and Lasse Scharpen founded SHPN3 € 270.000 view of Segundo. My intention is to explore the following questions: what happens International Film Festival Rotterdam: Official Selection Films in 2012. They are based in Berlin, Kreuzberg. Most when the father figure we admire collapses? How does a 13-year-old from a chauvinistic Peruvian National Short Film Awards: recently they have produced the feature films Echolot Financiers/partners society deal with this experience? How do we cope with the sense of void? When one Best Short Film Award (2013) and At Home (2014) which both premiered at the already involved wants to break free, why does dependency prevail? Can tolerance and acceptance be World Independent Film Awards: Berlinale. The films have been successfully taking their Ministerio de Cultura, regained? The inspiration for this project is the Peruvian “Retablo”, a sophisticated Best Director Nomination turns on the international festival circuit. At Hom e has DAFO 2014 (Peru): Andean folk art in the form of portable static story-boxes which depict religious, been theatrically released in Europe in September. € 150.000 historical and everyday events. Retablo is a film that moves from a contemplative Currently they are in preproduction of their new film Private sponsorship “story-box” state to a present one where Segundo feels as if a ghost is entering his body. We are the flood which is set to shoot in November. (Peru): € 120.000 He doesn’t know what is happening to him. That is why I am making this film.

190 191 NCN ProjECtS Romania Charlton Heston Andrei Cretulescu

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile On the day of his 42nd birthday (a Friday), and just a few weeks after the death of his A former film critic, Andrei started working for HBO Icon Production English title wife Ioana, a drunken and disconsolate Alexandru is visited by Sebastian, who Romania in 1999, where he was in charge of the “On Icon Production is an independent film/TV production Charlton Heston introduces himself as Ioana's lover of the past five months. Alexandru hits the young Air” department. In 2008, he became Creative Manager company founded in 1994, which focuses on producing Screenplay by man and pulls him into the house. Exhausted, Alexandru falls asleep in an armchair. of the “Original Production” department within the feature films, documentaries and short films. Andrei Cretulescu Saturday morning: Sebastian tells Alexandru the details of his love story with Ioana. Format same company and went to produce In deriva (an Among its productions: the feature documentary The He wants to know everything about the woman he still loves, he wants to help HD, 1:2.35 adaptation of HBO US’s In Treatment ), the first HBO Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010) by Andrei Shooting Language Alexandru overcome his huge loss and finally, he hopes Alexandru will help him get European original series, and nine original Ujica, an exploration of the image of the Romanian Romanian over that very same loss. documentaries, including The World According to Ion B . dictator Nicolae Ceausescu using unseen official Main Locations Sunday: Alexandru takes Sebastian to lunch at Ioana's parents. Gathered around the (by Alexander Nanau), which won the Emmy footage from the Romanian National Television and Bucharest, Constanta table, for a while they eat in silence. Alexandru tells them that Sebastian and Ioana International Award for the Best Arts Programming. In National Film Archives. The film participated in various used to be lovers. Lunch is over. 2011 he left HBO and started his own production international festivals, such as: Cannes, Munich, Monday: Alexandru takes Sebastian to the seaside and stops the car in front of a company, Kinosseur. His credits as film producer Melbourne, Cinema du Reel, New York, Estoril, villa. Sebastian is shocked – how does Alexandru know where he spent his first night include the feature Killing Time (by Florin Piersic Jr), Stockholm, Thessaloniki and Hong Kong. The feature together with Ioana? Alexandru knows the villa just as well as he does – this is where selected in the official programme of international film Quod Erat Demontrandum (formerly known as The he and Ioana spent their honeymoon and all their summer holidays... For the first festivals such as Warsaw, Transilvania and Cottbus, Escape ) (2013), written and directed by Andrei time, Alexandru starts crying. Sebastian hugs him. Main Producer and two shorts (which he also directed), Bad Penny and Gruzsniczki, is a story of friendship and betrayal during Tuesday morning: Sebastian comes to the boardwalk to say goodbye. Alexandru Icon Production Kowalski . He has just finished shooting his third the communist era, involving a mathematician who smiles; in another life, they could have been best friends. But this is not the case... 17 Ferdinand Blvd., ap. 5, independently financed short, Ramona . Andrei is just published a paper in an American scientific Sebastian exits Alexandru's life as unexpectedly as he entered it. district 2 currently in pre-production with his first national fund- magazine. The film had its world premiere in Official 021381 Bucharest supported project, the feature Charlton Heston , which Competition at the Rome International Film Festival Romania he'll shoot in 2015. 2013 where it won the Special Jury Prize. The short film Director’s Statement Horse Power was selected in the official competition of Tel. +40 723567597 This is the story of an impossible love and the story of an unlikely friendship. It is a [email protected] 2013 Bad Penny Locarno 2014. story about people, about love, about relationships. It addresses those who love and SHORT FILM who will love, those who cherish love and those who look at love with contempt. It will Transilvania International Film Festival 2013: Estimated budget be a film about regret and sadness, but treated in a careful and subtle key, neither € 543.000 "Romanian Days" Shorts competition forced nor aggressive. It will become a colorful film, raw; set in a particular universe, a Cambridge Film Festival 2013: Shorts competition Financing in place Bucharest of today - but still idealist and intellectual - filtered through a classical / € 195.000 Lund Fantastic Film Festival 2013: Shorts competition retro approach supported by the music of the '60s. Brest International Film Festival 2013: International Though the film's first half takes place in an old house, this old house becomes a third, Shorts competition Financiers/partners main character of the story thus sound design will play a very significant part in already involved 2014 Kowalski establishing the mood of the film. SHORT FILM Icon Production It will be a film that will not be afraid to ask the viewers something that they haven't (Romania): € 145.000 Transilvania International Film Festival 2014: been asked for a long time - to be touched by it. It will be a movie that dares to ask the "Romanian Days" Shorts competition Kinosseur Productions audience to laugh and cry, sometimes in the same scene. It will be a sad movie, but not (Romania): € 50.000 Warsaw Film Festival 2014: International Shorts a desperate one; it will be a funny movie, but not a happy one. competition Zagreb Film Festival 2014: International Shorts competition

192 193 NCN ProjECtS South Africa Alex on 7 th Engelbert Phiri

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile The suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg, South Africa, is a real eye-opener. Known Engelbert Phiri studied Graphic Design and later Media Xcut Studios PtY ltd original title among property agents as “Africa’s richest square mile”, Sandton is the office location and Communication Studies. He balances independent X Cut Studios is a full service audiovisual production th Alex on 7 of choice for multinational investment banks and brokerages. Black and white rub filmmaking with work as an award-winning senior and post production company with extensive Screenplay by shoulders easily, discreetly checking out each other’s watches and frocks. The riches of creative at one of South Africa’s leading advertising experience across all genres of multi-media Engelbert Phiri Sandton stand out all the more sharply because its glittering office towers are just Format agencies. He has written a number of short films production. Although primarily a production company, two kilometres away from Alexandra Township, one of Johannesburg’s oldest and HD 16:9 including the award-winning Bloodstones , and directed X Cut studios is deeply rooted in post production and Shooting Language poorest shantytowns. “Alex”, as Alexandra Township is popularly known, is just a the grant-winning short Stanley that ran the has its own state-of-the-art editing and audio facilities. English, Zulu stone’s throw away from the luxury and privilege of the Sandton suburb, and the international festival circuit. He is developing another Additionally, it has high-end cameras and sound Main Locations socio-economic situation of the two areas couldn’t be more disparate. Along Seventh feature documentary project entitled Spirits of The equipment to ensure exceptional recording quality in Alexdra, Johannesburg Street in Alexandra lives 83 year-old Claire. In her yard is a tiny gym made of Karoo . ‘I want to grow as a visionary filmmaker and, the field. X Cut Studios has full BEE (Black Economic corrugated scrap iron, nurtures the dreams of her township’s young men. The gym through film, engage audiences to motivate a positive Empowerment) compliance. doubles up as a tattoo parlour and fine art studio. Claire is determined to help the change. I believe that creative documentary is a guys beat the odds and use bodybuilding, boxing and weightlifting as well as other mechanism through which art and stories truly can creative means as an escape from poverty and despair, rarely found in their tough make a difference. I yearn to tell character-driven day-to-day lives. Alex On 7 th is a series of intimate portraits of great-grandmother stories that humanise social issues and challenge our Claire; Lulu, her nine year old cat; and Tumi, Gino, João and Bongani, who are all trying Main Producer perception of the world’. to earn a living from the only thing they have - their bodies. These four men are trying Xcut Studios PtY ltd to find a way to balance their physical reality with the futures they dream of 134 Grayston Drive, 2008 Stanley achieving. Alex On 7 th is a cinematic, artistic, visual and character-driven portrait of Grayston Mews, First Floor SHORT FILM African youth being guided by a wise and courageous 84-year-old great grandmother, Sandton - South Africa Hivos/Sithengi: Best Short Film Award seen not through the typical lens of poverty but rather of ambition and hope. Ph. +27 117846278 2005 Bloodstones [email protected] SHORT FILM Multi-Choice: Best Short Film Award Director’s Statement Estimated budget After visiting a relative on Seventh Street in Alexandra, l came across these dangerous- € 143.557,33 looking weightlifters; body-builders, and boxers that were using the only thing that Financing in place they had - their bodies - as an attempt to escape from their tough day-to-day lives. I € 22.000 went to the premises and met lovely 84-year-old Claire, who has offered the guys space to build the tiny iKasi Gym. Just like a matriarch, she made the rules for all who wanted Financiers/partners to be part of the gym. In her strength of character and her smile I found a light that already involved could fill an entire room. This was amplified by the four young men; Tumi, Bobo, Joao Xcut Studios and Gino. In these guys l knew l had found some small degree of light in the dark. € (South Africa): 22.000 I think this will turn out to be a more personal film than any other narrative short films I have made. Having grown up in a high-density township similar to Alex, I see a little of myself and my biological brothers, at that gym. My aim is not simply to tell a story, but to create a moment for the audience to contemplate, therefore making the audience the engine of the story. I don’t have any answers to the questions about life, and no conclusion to offer. All I want to do is strike a few chords that I hope will resonate with those who will watch this film. I believe that with this story l have found some truly unique and unforgettable characters that the audience will fall in love with. Ultimately, Alex On 7 th is everyone’s journey.

194 195

NCN ProjECtS Ukraine Volcano Roman Bondarchuk

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Lukas, a 35-year-old manager, sells t-shirts with the slogan “Life is Beautiful” all over Roman Bondarchuk was born in 1982 in Kherson, south tato Film original title the planet. But there seems to be something missing in his life: his wife does not of Ukraine, where the events told in Volcano are set. Tato Film was created by Olena Yershova, who Vulkan want to have children, and is indifferent towards him. But he complies and goes on A published writer since the age of 7, Roman previously worked for 8 years as executive director of English title with the daily flow. Bondarchuk is a graduate of the Kyiv State Theater, the Kyiv IFF Molodist and for 2 years as development Volcano Lukas is forced to go for business to Odessa, Ukraine, where a volcanic eruption Screenplay by Film and Television University, the Cinema department manager of the Eurasia Film Market (Turkey). Her forces him to stay for an uncertain time. After meeting young Marushka, he first Roman Bondarchuk, of the famous Dop–Director Yuriy Illenko. career continued for the SOTA Cinema Group (Ukraine) Darya Averchenko, ends up drinking and dancing in a club, and later awakes inside a truck going to the Bondarchuk’s graduation film Taxi Driver won the producing feature films, many of which were Alla Tyutyunnyk southern town of Beryslav, where he finds himself in the house of Marushka’s father White Elephant prize from the Russian Film Critic Guild international co-productions. Format Vova. and the Russian Producers’ Grand Prix at the Kinoshok Yershova was the executive producer of My Joy by HD Lukas, overwhelmed by this unfamiliar situation, tries to escape from this forgotten Open Film Festival for the CIS and Baltic countries, as Sergei Loznitsa (Germany – Ukraine –Netherlands) that Shooting Language place. But when his passport is stolen he sees no other option than to follow Vova in well as the prize for ‘Boldness and Poetics’ at the 4 th was presented In Competition at the Cannes IFF in 2010. Ukrainian, German his daily activities. Despite Vova’s crazy business ideas and lifestyle, Lukas begins to KINOTEATR.DOC Festival. In 2013 Tato Film coproduced Blind Dates by Levan Main Locations admire his unique mixture of optimism and craziness. Lukas also grows more South of Ukraine Bondarchuk is currently shooting the documentary Koguashvili. The film premiered in Toronto 2013, attracted to Marushka. Sheriffs that was supported by ZDF-ARTE and IDFA. He competed in the Tokyo IFF, in the Palm Spring IFF, and Lukas realizes that Vova has found his way through a chaotic post communist era, is also an art director of the documentary film festival received numerous awards: the Special Jury award in and his way of life gives him no reason to be unhappy or lose his tracks. Vova has the Main Producer about human rights, Docudays UA, in Kiev. Abu Dhabi, the Best Film and Best Director awards at balance of life, the real “Life is Beautiful” formula. Lukas dives into an unknown tato Film the Sofia IFF, the FIPRESCI award, Best Director at the universe, in which happiness seems to be hidden inside a compound of reality and #11 Uritskogo str apt 8 2013 Poet on the run Vilnius IFF, Best Director at the Wiesbaden Go-East IFF, illusion, destiny and self-determination as well as past, present and future. Will he 03035 Kiev - Ukraine FEATURE DOCUMENTARY and Best Film at the Lecce European IFF. be able to find the secret path to his personal luck? The company also produced the feature film Love Me Ph. +38 679899997 2012 Pasha and the Light [email protected] by Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er, that FEATURE DOCUMENTARY recently won 3 prizes at the Fantasporto IFF, 2007 radunytsya Estimated budget Director’s Statement participated at numerous international festivals, The project poses the questions that today’s generation of 40-year-olds are so often SHORT DOCUMENTARY € 639.000 received a Special Jury award at the Nashville IFF, the faced with: how do we live now? How do we really want to live? Can we change the Goethe Institute’s International Short Films Special Jury award at PriFest in Kosovo, and will Financing in place direction we want our life to go in? Much like in Zorba the Greek , these questions will € Competition: First Prize compete in Tokyo. 115.370 come up with the encounter of two (very different) characters who meet in the south 2007 taxi Driver Ukrainian province: Lukas (35), the disillusioned business manager of a fashion label, Financiers/partners and Vova (40), a jack-of-all-trades and all-round optimist, who tries to master the SHORT FILM already involved Tato chaotic Ukrainian every-day life as best as he can. After some initial adjustment Russian Film Critic’s Guild: Elephant Prize Film (Ukraine): problems, Lukas not only starts enjoying this his new situation, but rediscovers a long- € 115.370 forgotten dream. And thanks to Lukas, Vova- too gentle to be a criminal but too vain to be a farmer- will find a new awareness. My country is now making a choice of “civilization”. The lack of Ukrainian films is one of the reasons why there is such an information void and for such a stereotypical perception of the country. I want to deal with both the stereotypes on Ukrainians and the stereotypes we have about Europeans. I plan to shoot the real Vova, who is a very talented actor. As for the other characters, I’ll try to find them through casting sessions in Beryslav and the surrounding villages.

198 199 NCN ProjECtS USA Ombra Amore Joe Dante

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Night falls in Rome, and two wild, lonely young people fall in love. Pure animal Joe Dante’s now legendary The Movie Orgy brought Elizabeth Stanley Pictures original title magnetism draws them together, which makes sense. After all, Pete’s a werewolf him to the attention of Roger Corman for whom Joe co- Producer Elizabeth Stanley founded Elizabeth Stanley Ombra Amore and Maggie’s a vampire. But that's also the problem. Pete's werewolf pack are directed Hollywood Blvd. , with Allan Arkush. His solo Pictures (ESP) in 2005. ESP’s producing credits include: Screenplay by reckless financial traders responsible for the current economic crisis and Maggie's feature credits include: T he Howling , It’s a Good Life Splatter , an interactive project for Netflix; the new Greg Pak aristocratic vampire clan, who are on the verge of bankruptcy, are amongst their Format (Twilight Zone: The Movie segment) , Gremlins , The media series The Dark Path Chronicles, written and victims. HD Explorers , The ‘Burbs , Gremlins 2: The New Batch, directed by Mary Lambert for FEARnet; and the award- Shooting Language The two “families” detest one another. The werewolves see the vampires as Matinee , Small Soldiers , Looney Tunes Back in Action , winning pop culture phenomenon, Trailers from Hell . English, Italian weaklings, no longer able to survive on their own. The vampires view the The Hole 3D and Burying the Ex (now in post). Dante’s Stanley is currently developing the narrative feature Main Locations werewolves as dangerous predators whose out ‐of ‐control behaviour will destroy television credits include: Amazon Women on the Jane-by ‐the ‐Sea , an original take on the origins of Jane Rome their way of life. Moon , Amazing Stories , Twilight Zone , Police Squad! Austen’s work, and is producing two features that Joe Determined to make things work, Pete charms his way into Maggie's clan. She says Night Visions , Picture Windows , Runaway Daughters , Dante ( Gremlins , The Howling ) will direct: The Man she's a loner with a violent history. He says they’re the same. They kiss. This might The Second Civil War , CSI: New York , Masters of Horror with Kaleidoscope Eyes - about Roger Corman’s journey actually work. (Homecoming and The Screwfly Solution) Hawaii 5-0 , through 1960s American counter-culture and Ombra But then they discover that Pete's ex-girlfriend Rosalina has been murdered. The The Witches of East End ; and the pilots for The Osiris Amore , a tale of star-crossed lovers set in vampires suspect Pete and the werewolves suspect Maggie. Chronicles and Eerie, Indiana . Dante co-created and contemporary Rome. The couple fights to protect each other as their clans clash. As the stakes get higher, Main Producer produces Trailers from Hell and has been honored with they both hear the call of their inner monsters. Can their love survive as the full Elizabeth Stanley Pictures awards and career retrospectives at film festivals, Apropos Productions moon rises over the final battle between their clans? 523 N. Cahuenga Blvd. museums and cinematheques around the world. A graduate of the DGA’s AD Training Program, Frederic 90004 Los Angeles, W. Brost’s entertainment industry career spans four California – USA 2014 Burying the Ex decades. He worked as an assistant director or Director’s Statement FEATURE FILM production manager on feature and television projects Ph. +1 3234699282 Rome. The Eternal City of Gods and Monsters. Where a She ‐Wolf suckled Romulus and Fax +1 3107209013 2010 the Hole 3D for some of the business’ most respected directors. Remus. And what could be more Eternal than Un ‐death? Whether it's the immortal FEATURE FILM From 1980-90 Brost served as Vice-President and [email protected] reign of the vampire or the endless addiction of the lycanthrope to the full moon, the www.trailersfromhell.com 2003 Looney tunes Back in Action Executive Production Manager for Universal Pictures, lasting appeal of the supernatural has given European culture a rich heritage of FEATURE FILM supervising all aspects of feature film production on literary and cinematic depictions of human emotions channelled through fantasy and 1998 Small Soldiers over 100 motion pictures. Apropos Productions superstition - the scourge of the bizarre, the different, and the misunderstood. And 7 rue Jean du Bellay FEATURE FILM In 1990, Brost returned to physical production and above all, Italy is a land of lovers. It's no accident that Romeo and Juliet takes place 1997 the Second Civil War founded Apropos Productions, Inc. 75004 Paris – France here. And like that classic tale, Ombra Amore is the story of star-crossed lovers from Ph. +33 144411450 FEATURE FILM Starting in 1998, Brost worked closely with Steven different backgrounds, set midst the battle between ruined upper-class vampires 1993 Matinee Soderbergh, first as production manager on Out of Fax +33 144411450 desperately trying to maintain their place in the world, and modern rapacious [email protected] FEATURE FILM Sight , The Limey and Erin Brockovich and then as werewolves with the destructive forces of economic exploitation. Unique, scary and 1990 Gremlins 2: the New Batch Executive Producer or Co-Producer on the Che films, ultimately tragic, Ombra Amore is a compelling new take on a classic genre. Estimated budget FEATURE FILM Ocean’s Eleven , Twelve and Thirteen , The Good German € 11.678.175 1989 the ‘burbs and Traffic . FEATURE FILM 1987 Innerspace FEATURE FILM 1984 Gremlins FEATURE FILM 1981 the Howling FEATURE FILM

200 201 NCN ProjECtS USA Operator Logan Kibens

ProjECt INForMAtIoN Synopsis Director’s Profile Company Profile Joe is a programmer whose mastery of data serves him well at work, where he designs Logan Kibens is a Writer/Director whose work Familiar original title the personalities for IVRs–the digital customer service voices that have replaced call integrates visual artistry with narrative, character Formed in 2013 by Felipe Dieppa and Isaac LeFevre after Operator centers around the world. But Joe’s recent personality design for a healthcare IVR is a driven storytelling. She is a Sundance Screenwriters Lab years of working together in the film industry, Familiar Screenplay by massive failure, and if he can’t quickly design a more caring and empathetic IVR, he’s fellow and recipient of the HBO/DGA Directing is an independent film production company with more Logan Kibens, out of a job. Joe realizes that Emily, his loving and caring wife, is the perfect template Sharon Greene Fellowship (working on shows such as True Blood , than 20 years of combined experience. Each partners’ for his IVR. Emily agrees to be the model for the new personality, recording thousands Format Entourage and The Newsroom ). Logan was selected as unique background in the film industry provides HD/Alexa of prepared responses while juggling her fulltime job and the dream gig she just one of Film Independent’s Project: Involve fellows after complimentary skill sets that together create a Shooting Language landed as a writer/performer in a late night comedy show. Feeling smothered by Joe, completing her CalArts thesis film, Recessive . Her films dynamic producing team proficient in all facets of English Emily begins to release her mounting frustrations by using their personal life as have screened at museums and festivals such as The making a film, from inception to delivery. Main Locations material on stage. As Emily becomes less available to Joe, he grows to rely on the IVR - Chicago International Film Festival, Outfest, Frameline, Isaac LeFevre has worked as a unit production manager Chicago, Illinois a programmable, digital version of Emily - for his emotional and even sexual needs. Brooklyn Museum of Art, ZINEBI and REDCAT among on several independent features, as well as served as When the Emily IVR is finally released, it’s a massive success, but Joe’s unnatural others. Kibens worked as a commercial editor for eight an associate producer on film and television shows reliance on it comes to light. Emily is appalled at how easily she was replaced by years, most recently at Leo Burnett on campaigns over the last 7 years. Most recently, Isaac was a co- something so much less than her. She packs her bags and leaves. Alone, Joe realizes ranging from Blackberry to Cadillac to Disney. She is an producer and the UPM of The Lifeguard (Dir. Liz Garcia) the limitations of his IVR-he’s successfully made an unchanging, “perfect” version of award-winning projections designer for theatre and which premiered in competition at the 2013 Sundance Emily, and next to it he is still a flawed, vulnerable human. Joe must try and regain Main Producer dance with designs at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Film Festival and sold to Focus Worldwide. He also Emily’s trust. He goes to her show, giving up control, and embracing his wife for who Familiar The Washington Opera to name a few. Her original recently produced and directed a television show for she’s changing into. 166 1st Avenue, Apt. 4 screenplay Operator is supported by the Sundance Discovery Network. 10009 New York - USA Institute, Film Independent, the Alfred P. Sloan Felipe Dieppa entered the film industry as an actor at Ph. +1 3475468243 Foundation and was selected as a finalist for the SFFS the age of six, originating the voices for several notable [email protected] Director’s Statement Hearst Screenwriting Grant. children’s cartoon characters (including “Diego”, on Operator comes from a difficult time in my relationship - my wife (co-writer Sharon Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer ), starring in soap Greene) and I had just gotten married, and within a year we moved from Chicago to 2014 Harmony operas, and making his feature debut in Dan in Real Estimated budget Los Angeles to enter into separate, concurrent grad school programs. A time of € 755.627,43 SHORT FILM Life (Touchstone Pictures/Disney). He later transitioned exponential change and personal growth that was hard to keep up with individually, 2011 recessive into film production, working as a locations manager much less together. The technology in Operator comes from an interest in exploring Partners SHORT FILM and assistant director on several films, television how strong our desire is to see ourselves reflected - how desperately we long for 2010 Prep room shows, and commercials. In 2009, he moved into already involved connection and empathy that we settle for even the coarsest replica. Alex Saks, ICM Partners SHORT FILM producing and went on to serve as an associate In Operator , Joe struggles with his own ability to change. He suffers from panic and JuntoBox Feature Film 2008 rock jetty producer on Brazzaville Teenager and co-producer on anxiety, and believes that if he can just keep himself stable he can control his fear and Incubator SHORT FILM Supporting Characters (which premiered at the Tribeca anxiety. Emily is on the precipice of change, and invigorated by the idea of jumping 2002 rough Cut Film Festival). Most recently, Felipe produced Trouble into a new, unknown experience. Joe is terrified of Emily changing and growing away SHORT FILM Dolls (starring Will Forte, Meghan Mullaly, Jess Weixler, from the woman who loves him, because it would mean he would have to 1998 90% which premiered at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival) acknowledge that he is changing as well, disrupting his meticulously crafted balance. SHORT FILM and executive produced Shut Up and Drive , both Through the creation of the IVR, Joe has the unique opportunity to play out his belief alongside Starstream Entertainment ( The Butler, Life that the Emily he knows now is perfect, by replicating her into an unchanging After Beth ), where he later worked as their Director of machine. Face to face with this replica of what he wants in a relationship and in Productions. In addition to Operator , Felipe is currently himself, Joe is forced to encounter these limitations head on. Joe must do the hard an executive producer on Sweetgrass , being directed by work we all must do - face his partner and himself with openness and vulnerability, Veena Sud (creator of AMC’s The Killing ) and starring connect to each other in all our humanity, amidst a minefield of simple replicas and Toni Collette. seemingly easy alternatives.

202 203