2004 2018 WORLD CINEMA FUND SUPPORTED FILMS - Berlinale

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CONTINUE READING
Amidst the world in tough times

          Dealing with fiction, documentary and
          everything in between

          More than money, talking about cinema,
          working together, making things happen

WORLD
CINEMA
FUND
SUPPORTED
FILMS
2004 – 2018
CONTENTS
Welcome  8–10                                      Íse Yarar Birsey Something Useful 36                   El custodio The Minder 61                         El otro The Other 77
                                                   Las herederas The Heiresses 37                         Ðap Cánh Giua Không Trung                         Pandoranin Kutusu Pandora’s Box 77
WCF                                                Kinshasa Makambo On the Other Side of Freedom 38       Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere 61              Paradise Now 78
Production Support                                 Körfez The Gulf 39                                     Death for Sale 62                                 La pasión de Michelangelo The Passion
                                                   Lissa Ammetsajjel Still Recording 40                   Dioses Gods 62                                    of Michelangelo 78
PROJECTS IN PRODUCTION                             Madmen’s Fort Le fort des fous 41                      Ee’adat Khalk Recycle 63                          Pelo Malo Bad Hair 79
Al Nahr The River 12                               Mai Mee Samui Samrab Ter Samui Song 42                 Ejercicios de memoria Memory Exercices 63         Pesni juzhnykh morej Song from the Southern Seas 79
Blanco en blanco White on White 13                 Monos 43                                               Faro − La reine des eaux Faro − Goddess           El premio The Prize 80
El cambista The Money Changer 14                   O Processo The Trial 44                                of the Waters 64                                  Polvo 80
Clara Sola 15                                      Querência 45                                           Filmefobia Filmphobia 64                          Post Mortem 81
A Febre The Fever 16                               Rojo 46                                                Genenet Al Asmak Aquarium 65                      Rak ti Khon Kaen Cemetery of Splendour 81
Karanlik Gece Black Night 17                       Talking about trees Le banc d’attente 47               Girimunho Swirl 65                                Refugiado 82
Matar a un muerto Killing the Dead 18              Teatro de guerra Theatre of War 48                     Hamaca Paraguaya 66                               Remote Control 82
La memoria del monte The Memory of the Forest 19   Temporada de caza Hunting Season 49                    Hanotenet The Slut 66                             Roma wa la n’touma Rome Rather Than You 83
Nhà Cây The Tree House 20                                                                                 Historia del miedo History of Fear 67             Round Trip 83
Noche de fuego 21                                  Finished Films 2004–2016                               Los hongos 67                                     Saratan 84
The Orphanage 22                                   3/Tres 3/Three 52                                      Huacho 68                                         Sentados frente al fuego By the Fire 84
Shikolbaha Iron Stream 23                          Abaabi ba Boda Boda The Boda Boda Thieves 52           Independencia 68                                  Shekarchi The Hunter 85
Vendrá la muerte y tendrá tus ojos                 Agua y sal Water and Salt 53                           Jauja 69                                          Shilton Ha – Chok The Law in these Parts 85
Death will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes 24        Ajami 53                                               Jean Gentil 69                                    Shirley Adams 86
Vi Taste 25                                        Akher Ayam El Medina In the Last Days of the City 54   Jermal 70                                         Siembra 86
La vaca que cantó una canción de futuro            Alaverdi I’m Going to Change My Name 54                Kalo Pothi The Black Hen 70                       La sociedad del semáforo The Stoplight Society 87
The Cow that Sang a Song About the Future 26       Al-Wadi The Valley 55                                  La Khaneye Zire Âb The House Under the Water 71   Stellet Licht Silent Light 87
                                                   Antes o tempo não acabava Time was Endless 55          Kuzu The Lamb 71                                  Sur la Planche On the Edge 88
Finished Films 2017–2019                           Araf Somewhere in between 56                           Lelaki harapan dunia Men Who Saved the World 72   Süt Milk 88
Al-Taqareer Hawl Sarah Wa Saleem                   Atos dos homens Acts of Men 56                         Liverpool 72                                      Svet-Ake The Light Thief 89
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem 28                 El Bella Vista 57                                      Loong Boonmee raleuk chat Uncle Boonmee           Te prometo anarquía I Promise you Anarchy 89
Breve historia del planeta verde                   Bi, dung so! Bi, don’t be afraid! 57                   Who Can Recall His Past Lives 73                  La tercera orilla The Third Side of the River 90
Brief Story from the Green Planet 29               Carne de perro Dog Flesh 58                            Las malas intenciones The Bad Intentions 73       La teta asustada The Milk of Sorrow 90
La cama The Bed 30                                 Chaque jour est une fête Every Day is a Holiday 58     Medianeras 74                                     Uroki Garmonii Harmony Lessons 91
Cocote 31                                          Cha và con và Big Father, Small Father                 Mohammad sauvé des eaux Mohammad Saved            Los viajes del viento The Wind Journeys 91
En attendant les hirondelles                       and Other Stories 59                                   from the Waters 74                                Las vidas posibles Possible Lives 92
Until the Birds Return 32                          Chilla 59                                              Naoussé A Perfect Day 75                          Workers 92
Etz Te’ena Fig Tree 33                             El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia The Sky, the Earth     NN 75                                             Zai Jian Wa Cheng The Road to Mandalay 93
Félicité Felicity 34                               and the Rain 60                                        La obra del siglo The Project of the Century 76   Zion Ve’ Achiv Zion and his Brother 93
Flatland 35                                        Ciudadela Citadel 60                                   O céu de Suely Suely in the Sky 76
2                                                                                                                                                                                                                 3
CONTENTS
wcf europe                                          wcf AFRIcA                                        Dol 129                                            WCF Europe
Production Support                                  Production Support                                Ee’adat Khalk Recycle 129                          distribution support
                                                                                                      Félicité Felicity 130
Projects in production WCF                          Projects in production                            Fidaï 130                                          Las herederas The Heiresses 148
Europe                                              Bufis 112                                         Gigante 131                                        Inhebbek Hedi Hedi 148
Ceniza negra 96                                     The Grave Digger 113                              Las herederas The Heiresses 131                    Rak ti Khon Kaen Cemetery of Splendour 149
Feathers of a Father 97                             The Night Outside 114                             Huacho 132                                         Los Perros 149
Indivision Joint Possession 98                      Pas d’or pour Kalsaka No Gold for Kalsaka 115     Los insólitos peces gato The Amazing Catfish 132   Oscuro animal 150
Kapag Wala nang mga Alon When the                   Satmout fel Eshrean You Will Die at Twenty 116    Inxeba The Wound 133                               Zama 150
Waves are Gone 99                                                                                     Jodaeiye Nader az Simi Nader and Simin –
El retorno del Señor Roque Thielen a la Isla        Finished Films 2016–2018                          A Sepa­ration 133                                  WCF Info 152–153
Akare-Meru The Return of Mister Roque Thielen       28’s The Number 118                               Kebun Binatang Postcards from the Zoo 134
to the Island of Akare-Meru 100                     A Kasha 118                                       Kick Off Kirkuk 134                                table 154–155
Tlamess 101                                         I am not a Witch 119                              La León 135
White Building 102                                  Rafiki Jambula Tree 119                           Leonera Lion’s Den 135
                                                    Sew the Winter to my Skin 120                     Loong Boonmee raleuk Chat
Finished Films 2016–2018                                                                              Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 136
Aala Kaf Ifrit Beauty and the Dogs 104              WCF                                               Madeinusa 136
Amal 104                                            distribution support                              Moolaadé 137
Candelaria 105                                                                                        Norté, Hangganan Icasaysayan Norte, The end
A cidade onde envelheço Where I Grow Old 105        Abluka Frenzy 122                                 of history 137
Cuadros en la Oscuridad Paintings in the Dark 106   El abrazo partido Lost Embrace 122                Nuestro tiempo Our Time 138
Divino amor 106                                     El abrazo de la serpiente                         O homem que copiava The Man Who Copied 138
Inxeba The Wound 107                                The Embrace of the Serpent 123                    Octubre 139
Jesús 107                                           Ang Babaeng Humayo The Woman Who Left 123         Pandoranin Kutusu Pandora’s Box 139
Muere, Monstruo, Muere! Die, Monster, Die! 108      Ajami 124                                         Pelo Malo Bad Hair 140
Oscuro animal 108                                   Al-khoroug lel-nahar Coming Forth by Day 124      Rafiki Jambula Tree 140
Pendular 109                                        Al-Taqareer Hawl Sarah Wa Saleem The Reports on   Semaan Bil Day’ia The One Man Village 141
Los perros 109                                      Sarah and Saleem 125                              Shekarchi The Hunter 141
Rabih Tramontane 110                                Bamako 125                                        Sonbahar Autumm 142
Weldi 110                                           Bombón – El perro Bombón The Dog 126              Svet-Ake The Light Thief 142
                                                    Candelaria 126                                    La teta asustada The Milk of Sorrow 143
                                                    Caramel 127                                       Un homme qui crie A Screaming Man 143
                                                    Carne de perro Dog Flesh 127                      El viento The Wind 144
                                                    Daratt 128                                        Workers 144
                                                    Días de Santiago 128                              WWW What a Wonderful World 145
4                                                                                                                                                                                                     5
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
                                                                                                                              Director, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES
                                                                                                                              and CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR, Thailand
                                                                                                                             “Even though my films have been shown at various places, finding funds remains
                                                                                                                              a challenge. Perhaps because the only way I know to make films is to do something
                             Marcelo Martinessi                                                                               deeply personal. I imagine scenarios when I’d have no resources to carry on –
                             Director, LAS HEREDERAS, Paraguay                                                                one of them is to grow vegetables. Which is not bad. Healthy, and romantic. But
                            “The cinematography of my country – Paraguay – is taking its first steps                          I hope that, it won’t happen in the next few years. So I’m very grateful for the
                             on the international scene, with a lot of enthusiasm. But locally we                             support from the WCF. It allows me to be able to continue exploring the lights, not
                             haven’t yet managed to forge public policies that facilitate the realisa-                        yet the soil.”
                             tion of the films we want to make. In this regard, the World Cinema
                             Fund support has been crucial for LAS HEREDERAS and for other                Torsten Frehse
                             Paraguayan projects, which from that push have found new alliances           Distributor, Neue Visionen, Germany
                             and ways to reach the big screen.”                                          “The WCF’s value as an organisation just can’t
                                                                                                          be underestimated, both financially and in terms
                                                                                                          of the support it provides; particularly when
                                                                                                          it comes to us independent distributors. Along
                                                                                                          with us distributors, the fun­ding provided            Michael Weber
 Alain Gomis                                                                                              by the WCF paves the only way to a respectable         Sales Agent, The Match Factory, Germany
 Director, FÉLICITÉ, Senegal                                                                              theatrical release in Germany for many non-           “Many projects are made possible in the first place
“When the idea of a film is born, I quickly tell myself: ‘it is unfundable!’                              European arthouse films.”                              because the filmmakers are allowed to spend
 We actually spend a lot of time trying to explain films, long before                                                                                            the money ‘at home’ – without having to set up
 we start making them (which is impossible). Then, in order to                                                                                                   a disproportionate and costly co-production
 avoid completely draining ourselves, we look for good listeners.                                                                                                which incurs increased post-production costs in
 The World Cinema Fund is one of these good listeners, with a watch-                                                                                             yet other countries.”
 ful eye. For us they are partners that are vital to the – increasingly
 precarious – existence of independent cinema. So, thank you.”                                               Helvécio Marins,
                                                                                                             Director, QUERÊNCIA and GIRIMUNHO; Brazil
                                                                                                            “I have made just two feature films and both of them have had support from
                  Gema Juárez Allen                                                                          the World Cinema Fund. It seems too good to be true – but here is a German
                  Producer, Gema Films, Argentina                                                            fund that supports projects from around the world!
                 “My mission as a producer is to help bring new films into the spotlight: to build           More than that, the WCF are sensitive and attentive to universal human stories –
                  a funding architecture, to create conditions for directors to develop and execute          their support has allowed us to show the world a snapshot of my Brazilian
                  their ideas and to find spaces of dialogue with the audience. Since the funding            hinterlands that not even Brazilian people know. They also provide a viewpoint
                  and distribution models for cinema are undergoing rapid, WCF has become                    of contemporary cinema and help us with the balance between being creative
                  a powerful beacon of consistent and lasting support, making it possible for an             and opening doors to markets and sales.
                  enormous selection of personal, bold and radical films to exist.”                          Vielen Dank WCF!”
WELCOME

WORLD CINEMA FUND                                          of all due to their artistic and cultural quality, but   funding opportunities. Besides the traditional WCF      Making things happen / Berlinale WCF Days
                                                           also thanks to the support of initiatives like the       funding programme – which since 2004 has rep-           We perceive the WCF as an institution that helps to
AMIDST THE WORLD                                           WCF fund. LAS HEREDERAS was awarded with two             resented the WCF’s core – in 2015 we started WCF        put things in motion. And we understand the WCF
IN TOUGH TIMES                                             Silver Bears at last year’s Berlinale and afterwards     Europe, supported by Creative Europe’s Media            DAY during the festival as a collective brainstorming
                                                           embarked on a unique further festival career. This       programme, which partners directors and produc-         event. As well as an artistic, cultural, even political,
Interpreting the complexity of the world, supporting the   film was definitely not an exception: the Argentin-      ers from funding regions with European producers.       analysis of the state of things in WCF regions and
pluralism of international film cultures                   ian ROJO, for example, was triple awarded in San         One year later we launched WCF Africa, thanks to        countries.
It’s nighttime in the Brazilian countryside of Minais      Sebastián, and the Syrian STILL RECORDING also           the support of the German Federal Foreign Of-           This year we are going to focus an important part of
Gerais and an important rodeo is starting – a quiet,       received three awards in Venice. Last but not least,     fice, with the goal to optimise film production and     the WCF DAY on Brazil and the Brazilian film indus-
happy, passionate atmosphere pervades this place. A        films like RAFIKI and A KASHA confirmed the creativ-     promote and disseminate film culture in the Sub-        try. First of all, there are two domestically supported
cowboy-rapper, the protagonist, sings “White, Black,       ity of talented new voices on the African continent.     Saharan region.                                         Brazilian films in the Berlinale programme. But talk-
Indians…we are all Brazilians” (QUERENCIA, Helvé-                                                                                                                           ing about the alarming Brazilian situation these days
cio Marins Jr., Brazil). Evening, somehow in South         A tailor-made funding programme                          More than money. Talking about cinema and the           confirms how cultural and production conditions in
Africa, a parking lot for truckers. While other drivers    For more than 14 years, the WCF has helped give          challenge of the reel. Enjoying synergies.              the WCF regions can change fast and radically: only
watch, a man threatens a young pregnant girl with a        shape and visibility to largely unseen cinema – by       Submitting a project to the WCF means getting in        five years ago financing a film project with local
weapon, tells her to take her clothes off. (FLATLAND,      supporting film production in countries that lack a      touch with a team passionately interested in not        funding sources wasn’t such a big deal in Brazil. We
Jenna Bass, South Africa) We are between the ruins         constructive film industry and by giving talented        only talking with producers but also directors, writ-   are not referring to mainstream cinema, but instead
of a huge open air cinema in Sudan: three extremely        filmmakers the opportunity to gain or improve            ers, directors of photography, and editors. Submit-     films with a strong artistic and cultural profile.
agile old guys are passionately talking about cinema       their international awareness and reach a global         ting a project to the WCF also means writing and        During the last months the situation has changed
and cinemas in their country; they are an important        audience. More than 209 successful projects and          talking about cinema. About camera work, light-         dramatically, on a financial and political level. We are
part of the Sudanese film history, they will re-open       films have been supported by the WCF. In 2004            ing, editing, music or the absence of music. About      seriously worried about the present and future of
this place, recreating the feeling of sharing a film ex-   we started the WCF as an initiative of the Berlinale     the narrative structure of the future film.             Brazilian cinema.
perience (TALKING ABOUT TREES, Suhaib Gasmelbari,          together with the German Federal Cultural Founda-        The WCF is open to submissions from both feature-       Another important part of the WCF DAY will focus
Sudan).                                                    tion, with the goal of creating an artistically unique   length fiction and documentary film projects. And       on audience building and audience design. We are
Scenes from three of the six WCF supported films           funding structure based on an efficient production       everything in between. We are open to bold pro-         convinced that starting from the very beginning of
invited by the Berlinale 2019. All extremely different     and cooperation model. Although German or Euro-          posals that call into question the interpretation       a film project, producers, directors and potential
films, exemplifying the cultural und stylistic variety     pean producers are always the administrative recip-      and reinterpretation of reality. Cinema has many        world sales companies should be actively thinking
of successful WCF-supported projects.                      ients of our support, they are required to spend the     faces.                                                  about its future audience – the impact of a possible
Last year was also particularly successful for the         money in the projects’ regions of origin, a very ef-     Last but not least, getting in touch with the WCF       theatrical release, with the distribution of the future
WCF-supported films. Firstly: Marcelo Martinessi’s         fective way to support production in places where        means getting in touch with the Berlinale. That         film through other technical support, providing in
LAS HEREDERAS confirms that even films produced            the money is most needed.                                said, a key point of our funding strategy is that       advance different theatrical and virtual spaces for
by so-called “small players” of the film industry, such    The WCF is increasingly able to satisfy different        WCF-funded films are totally free: a world premiere     distribution. It makes even more sense for films
as Paraguay, can achieve remarkable success – first        project structures and needs, offering tailor-made       during the Berlinale isn’t a WCF funding condition.     coming from WCF regions.
8                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 9
WCF
                                                                                                                            PRODUCTION SUPPORT
                                                                                                                        Projects in production
Re-thinking cinema / Being aware of the local cultural /   religious fundamentalism. Funding bold and ground-
historical context                                         breaking projects produced by local companies, sup-
With its targeted support, the WCF has for years           ported by passionate international co-producers and
been playing a significant role in establishing a new      linked to regional narratives which develop intense
geography of cinema that we can describe as “on            and critical content, social-political global issues and
the move”. Illuminating an existing reality: in the WCF    an innovative cinematic language assumes an even
regions we have the opportunity to reach and sup-          more crucial meaning nowadays.
port a large number of filmmakers with enormous
creative energy.                                           What about the future? Working for an even more effec-
As a European funding institution focussed on re-          tive and sustainable WCF
gions mostly dealing with the complexity of a coloni-      First of all it’s about the present: sincere thanks to Di-
al and post-colonial heritage, we are clearly aware of     eter Kosslick who made the WCF possible. Due to his
their local cultural/historical context, always working    experience as head of important funding institutions
on further optimising and updating our knowledge.          Dieter advocated the creation of a different initiative,
And we don’t forget the film history of these regions      far away from an Eurocentric point of view and with
and countries.                                             a distinct cultural-political and artistic identity. But
We understand innovation as one of the key ele-            what lies ahead for the Berlinale initiative, the World
ments of our profile, We are also aware that the glob-     Cinema Fund? In keeping with our funding identity,
al audio-visual production universe is continually         we will try our best in order to take care of the dif-
changing: for us, it means dealing with radical struc-     ferent needs of a challenging segment of the global
tural and technical development that might one day         film industry, whilst also reflecting on the future role
completely change the universe of so-called cinema.        of the WCF in the framework of the German and Eu-
We still strongly believe in cinema also as agorà, in      ropean film funding landscape, and thinking about
the classical cinema theatre as a place to share com-      how to further optimise and share the WCF experi-
mon cultural and emotional experiences. We are,            ence and knowledge in this particular field.
however, keen on experimenting with new narrative          However, only a sustainable institution with sustaina-
forms and histories, and new ways of watching films.       ble backup can achieve sustainable results. While we
                                                           very much appreciate the support of the institutions
Our world is a rough place                                 that make the existence of the WCF possible, we will
What about our initiative these days – does it still       continue to work hard at consolidating the WCF and
make sense? No doubt about it, yes. Probably even          making its activity even more effective.
more so than in the past, considering the cultural-
political situation around the world that increasingly
tends towards ignorance, political primitivism and         Vincenzo Bugno, Project Manager WCF
10
Blanco en blanco
                                                                                                                White on White
                                                                                                                by Theo Court

Al Nahr
The river
by Ghassan Salhab

Synopsis A young woman and a man meet for lunch                                                                 Synopsis An aura of the fin de siècle arrives at the      latifundistas saw these lands as a perfect place
in a restaurant located in the midst of a mountainous                                                           last corner of the earth: Tierra del Fuego. La Isla       to graze their sheep, and as a place where they
landscape in Lebanon. Suddenly, a war seems to                                                                  Grande, was the last stop for adventurers, rugged in-     could generate great fortunes. From the moment
explode in the distance, fighter planes crisscross the                                                          dividualists and mercenaries from all over the world.     of their arrival the colonizers clashed with the Ona,
sky. They both leave the place and venture deeper                                                               Pedro, a 50-year-old photographer, has come here to       who didn’t have a concept of private property and
into a nature that is more and more spectral, like the                                                          document the wedding of Mr. Porter, the omnipotent        crossed over fences to hunt the latifundista’s sheep.
couple they form today.                                                                                         latifundista. Alongside him, in the boat he arrives in    It took merely 15 years for men, women and children
                                                                                                                is Sara, the girl destined to become Mr. Porter’s wife.   to be exterminated.
Director’s note THE RIVER is the final part of a                                                                Her magnetic beauty becomes Pedro’s obsession. Pe-
triptych that began with THE MOUNTAIN and THE                                                                   dro begins to integrate into this strange land, where
VALLEY. Three deliberately geographic titles, three                                                             armed men live alongside groups of native people
territories. What binds them is essentially organic, an                                                         huddled together and the disturbing presence of a
invariable threat that affects the whole, reaching the                                                          house inhabited by the power that controls it all. He     Chile
slightest corner, the slightest of us; a threat present    LEBANON                                              betrays power for his passion: to photograph the girl.
                                                                                                                                                                          Director: Theo Court
in Lebanon for so long that it has imperceptibly mu-                                                            To capture with a photograph the moment in which
                                                           Director: Ghassan Salhab                                                                                       Producers: El Viaje Films (Spain), Don Quijote Films
tated into a territory itself. With a scarcity of words,   Producers: Khamsin Films (Lebanon), The Postoffice   her childish innocence…                                   (Chile), Kundschafter Filmproduktion (Germany),
THE RIVER retraces an afternoon as it shifts into night,   (Lebanon), Survivance (France), Unafilm (Germany)                                                              Pomme Hurlante Films (France)
in the company of a young woman and a much old-            German WCF partner: unafilm                          Director’s note In 1900, Chile and Argentina do-          German WCF partner: Kundschafter Filmproduktion
                                                           World sales: Les Films du Losange (France)                                                                     World sales: tbc
er man, less a couple than two persons caught in                                                                nated a parcel of what at that point had been un-
an intermediate state between the continued exis-          Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2018      exploited land to a group of Europeans known as           Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2017
tence of their relationship and survival itself.           Funding amount: 30.000 €                             the Tierra del Fuego Exploitation Society. Powerful       Funding amount: 45.000 €

12                                                                                                                                                                                                                               13
Clara Sola
                                                                                                           by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén

EL CAMBISTA
THE MONEY CHANGER
by Federico “Cote” Veiroj

Synopsis Umberto Brause managed to become                                                                  Synopsis In a remote village in Costa Rica, 32-year-     CLARA SOLA is an ultimatum about a woman’s jour-
renowned in the Uruguayan financial market; if he                                                          old Clara embarks on a journey to break free from        ney to take control of her body, her sexuality and
wants to stay alive in the struggle for making money,                                                      social and religious conventions and gain control of     her powers.
he will have to put at risk his marriage, the emerging                                                     her sexuality and newfound powers.
subvention of the 70s and his ancient code of ethics.
                                                                                                           Director’s note Growing up Catholic, I was made
Director’s note The Money Changer means a                                                                  to believe early on in life that women who mas-
huge challenge to me as a director, being my first                                                         turbated ended up in hell, and that the balance
screenplay based on a previously existing text. The                                                        between being a virgin and a whore was extremely
conception of this film was influenced by Scorsese’s                                                       delicate. With this screenplay, I want to explore
films Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street, films whose                                                      where our heroine, Clara, would land on this judg-
characters are entirely products of their time and                                                         ment scale – being a young woman with limited
environment. Reason for which, they lead two-faced                                                         social skills.
lives.                                                    URUGUAY                                                                                                   Costa rica
                                                                                                           The film takes place in a social and religious setting
                                                          Director: Federico “Cote” Veiroj                                                                          Director: Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
The counterpoint to this visual frenzy is a con dential   Producers: Oriental Features (Uruguay), Rizoma   where traditions hold back individual development.       Producers: Hobab (Sweden), Pacífica Grey (Costa Rica),
toned first-person narrative voice, indifferent to any    (Argentina), Pandora Film Produktion (Germany)   Clara has been stuck in a patriarchal context in         Laïdak Films (Germany), Need Productions (Belgium)
redemption for the character. On the contrary, aware      German WCF partner: Pandora Film Produktion      which women are oppressed not only by men, but           WCF German partner: Laïdak Films
                                                          World sales: tbc                                                                                          World sales: tbc
of his cynicism and perhaps seizing his chance on                                                          also by other women.
screen, Brause strips down, eager to share his experi-    Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2017                                                               Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2018
ence as yet another narcissistic key to his persona.      Funding amount: 40.000 €                                                                                  Funding amount: 50.000 €

14                                                                                                                                                                                                                      15
A Febre
The Fever
by Maya Da-Rin

                                                                                                                  KARANLIK GECE
                                                                                                                  Black Night
                                                                                                                  by Özcan Alper

Synopsis In Manaus, an industrial city surrounded         able to establish with these families, were determin-   Synopsis Ishak (35) is a wandering musician from a       what motivated me and pushed me to make this film.
by the Amazon rain forest. Justino, a 45 year-old Am-     ing experiences for me. The stories they told me        small mountain town. A lynching he was a part of         With this story, I tried to understand in particular
erindian, works as a security guard at a cargo port       about their experiences revealed the complex and        seven years earlier comes back to haunt him as he        how desires suppressed by society, sexual experi-
and lives in a small house on the outskirts of town.      tense relationship between indigenous cultures          returns to his hometown to farewell his dying moth-      ences and obstacles in the way of the formation of
Since the death of his wife, his only company has         and Western civilization, which has marked Brazil-      er. Facing the other five perpetrators – his childhood   individual identity can create a climate of extreme
been his youngest daughter Vanessa, but she will          ian history since colonial times. Urged on by these     friends – as well as the community and government        violence.
be leaving soon to study medicine in Brasília.            encounters, I began to jot down my first notes for a    officials supporting them, Ishak struggles with the
                                                          movie to be set in Manaus.                              guilt weighing upon him. However, the bigger the
Stuck between the city and his village, which he left                                                             crime, the stronger the silence – since everyone has
over 20 years ago, Justino finds himself condemned                                                                blood on their hands.
to an existence without place. During the day he
strives to stay focused at work. As time goes by, he                                                              Director’s note In this story, I wanted to follow
is gripped by a high fever, whose cause the doctors       Brazil                                                  the quest for truth and justice in Ishak’s world. In
are not able to identify. Vanessa finds herself torn                                                              his story, which is about common people in a             TURKEY
                                                          Director: Maya Da-Rin
between the desire to become a doctor and the                                                                     small mountain village, I was inspired by photo-
                                                          Producers: Tamanduá Vermelho (Brazil)                                                                            Director: Özcan Alper
decision to leave her father, sick, in Manaus.            Enquadramento Produções (Brazil), Still Moving          graphs similar to those taken under authoritarian        Producers: Nar Film (Turkey), Unafilm (Germany),
                                                          (France), Komplizen Film (Germany)                      regimes in many parts of the world.                      La Fabrica Nocturna (France)
Director’s note I was shooting two documentaries          German WCF partner: Komplizen Film                                                                               German WCF partner: unafilm
                                                          World sales: tbc                                                                                                 World Sales: tbc
in the Amazon region in 2006, when I met several                                                                  The relationships background characters have with
indigenous families who had left their traditional        Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2017             nature, each other and their sexuality, and how they     Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2018
territories to live in the city. The relationship I was   Funding amount: 48.000 €                                connect to the political process and situation are       Funding amount: 30.000 €

16                                                                                                                                                                                                                            17
Matar a un muerto
Killing the Dead
by Hugo Giménez

                                                                                                                 La Memoria del Monte
                                                                                                                 THE MEMORY OF THE FOREST
                                                                                                                 by Paz Encina

Synopsis Paraguay 1978, during the dictatorship           system designed for oppression – allows me a closer    Synopsis                                                    MEMORY FROM THE FOREST is the story of the first
Pastor (50) and Dionisio (25) bury dead bodies il-        look of the human condition.                           Memory from the world                                       ones, the eternal ones and the ones of today. It is the
licitly in the woods in a systematic and clandestine                                                             The exile and the song of remembrance                       story of exile, the story of our ancestors who had to
manner. At the same time, in Argentina, the World                                                                The chant of what endures                                   leave their lands and of those who have to do the
Cup is taking place. One morning among the bod-                                                                  Those who dwelled in the land before us                     same today. It is the story of the future of the peoples,
ies, the diggers, find a man, Mario (45) who is still                                                            Dreams, cinema, 3D                                          which could be different. It is the place where evil
breathing. Both men know they must kill him but                                                                  A format that allows us to inhabit the eternal              cannot exist. MEMORY FROM THE FOREST aims to pre-
they have never done anything like that before. A                                                                Preserve the forest and the spiritual world of the forest   serve a space of memory and wants, and, even if it is in
storm is coming, announcing the winter season,                                                                   Remember and dwell on it, at all times and forever          image form, to preserve a physical and also a spiritual
while the destiny of the three men is determined                                                                 That is the memory from the forest.                         place – one that cannot be overthrown nor abolished.
during the World Cup final match.                                                                                                                                            Why not believe?

Director’s note My goal is to explore the military        Paraguay                                                                                                           paraguay
regime from its outskirts, draw a line between that
                                                          Director: Hugo Giménez                                                                                             Director: Paz Encina
space and time that is unknown to me because I
                                                          Producers: Sabaté Films (Paraguay), Zona Audiovisual                                                               Producers: Silencio Cine (Paraguay),
didn’t experience it closely; I’ve only known its ech-    (Argentina), Altamar Films (France), Pandora Film                                                                  Gaman Cine (Argentina), Fortuna Films (Netherlands),
oes. I am interested in small stories in the context of   Produktion (Germany)                                                                                               Black Forest Films (Germany)
big historic events where the banality of evil is man-    German WCF partner: Pandora Film Produktion                                                                        German WCF partner: Black Forest Films
                                                          World sales: tbc                                                                                                   World Sales: tbc
ifested clearly. Also where fear of the unknown and
the paradox of the impossibility of killing – within a    Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2017                                                                    Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2018
                                                          Funding amount: 40.000 €                                                                                           Funding amount: 40.000 €

18                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  19
Nhà Cây
The Tree House
by Truong Minh Quý

                                                                                                                     Noche de fuego
                                                                                                                     by Tatiana Huezo

Synopsis Years ago, the filmmaker glimpsed a lone           writes truthfully what happens in front of his eyes      Synopsis In a solitary mountain town, where corn
house in the mountains. Inexplicably, the image of          and also reveals the hidden connections between          and poppies grow, the girls have boyish haircuts
that house has been lurking inside his mind since           things. This film is a visual attempt to document a      and each has an underground hiding place, like a
then and became the impetus for making The Tree             very small part of the immense universe of our mem-      tomb. Their mothers train them to flee death, to
House. This film is a journey to visualize the image        ory. By entering the realm of memory, I would like to    escape those who turn them into slaves or ghosts.
of the lone house in the memory and while doing             invite all of us to imagine much more. To understand     Eight-year-old Ana grows up with her best friends,
so, the present reality unfolds the stories of the          the reality, maybe what we really need is an innocent    Paula and María. They kill snakes, take over houses
people who live in these godforsaken places in the          imagination like the one of those children who we        of those who have fled and dress up as women.
mountains of Vietnam. In the mountains, there are           used to be long time ago.                                They create their own impenetrable world amidst
many concealed stories such as the indigenous Ruc                                                                    growing violence, yet there comes a day when one
people’s nostalgia for their primitive life in the caves,                                                            of them doesn’t make it to her hiding place in time.
which used to be their only home. Another story is
the encounter of a man with the new world who               Vietnam                                                  Director’s note NOCHE DE FUEGO explores what
had been living in the deep jungle for 40 years since                                                                it means to grow up as a girl in the midst of war in      Mexico
                                                            Director: Truong Minh Quý
he was born. The house in the memory (or, the lost                                                                   Mexico. It’s a story that invokes the magic and resist-
                                                            Producers: Lantern Production (China), Levo Films Pte.                                                             Director: Tatiana Huezo
home) becomes a light in the dark night that con-           Ltd. (Singapore), JK Film (Vietnam), Truong Minh Quý     ance of children and their honest gaze in the face        Producers: Pimienta Films (Mexico),
nects every human being’s story.                            (Vietnam), inselfilm produktion (Germany)                of a violent reality. The film speaks of the time we      The Match Factory (Germany)
                                                            German WCF partner: inselfilm produktion                 live in and how it resonates in our innermost being,      German WCF partner: The Match Factory
                                                            World sales: tbc                                                                                                   World sales: The Match Factory
Director’s note I envisage that the process of mak-                                                                  through the point of view of three girls on the path
ing The Tree House would be like the ethnography            Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2017          to adolescence.                                           Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2018
work of an anthropologist, who at the same time             Funding amount: 25.000 €                                                                                           Funding amount: 30.000 €

20                                                                                                                                                                                                                           21
THE ORPHANAGE
by Shahrbanoo Sadat

                                                                                                                  SHIKOLBAHA
                                                                                                                  IRON STREAM
                                                                                                                  by Kamar Ahmad Simon

Synopsis THE ORPHANAGE is about an orphanage,              Mujahedeen are a big part of the current Afghan        Synopsis On the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, back. His last words echoed in my ears for years until
its pupils and their everyday life. It is set in Kabul,    government. What I want to achieve with THE OR-        Bijoy (31) gives a tantalizing “Sarod” performance      I wrote the first draft in 2011. In the years that fol-
Afghanistan, in the late 80s.                              PHANAGE is to break this taboo and talk about that     in a trendy Kolkata Café. After the sudden death of     lowed I wrote different versions of the script, still I
                                                           time without judging. I want to connect with all the   his mother, he finds himself locked in the realm of could feel that there was something missing, some-
Qodrat (14) illegally sells cinema tickets for Bollywood   ethnicities and make a real conversation about that    her memories. His younger brother, the only bread- thing that was holding back the whole narrative. In
movies on the black market, when the police catch          time and about the ethnic civil war.                   winner in the family, takes away the small jewelry my previous drafts unconsciously I had been very
him and bring him to the orphanage. Qodrat dreams                                                                 box she left behind. In his solitary confinement in conscious of hiding myself in it. But the more I ex-
himself away to situations right out of an Indian                                                                 their Kolkata suburban house, Bijoy finds the other plored, the better I realized that this story without
Bollywood movie until he becomes part of a group                                                                  box full of her old letters and photo. For the first “me”, the storyteller, in it would be incomplete.
of friends. When the civil war starts, Qodrat escapes                                                             time Bijoy learns about his grandfather, the village
to Pakistan.                                                                                                      where he was born and of “Shikolbaha”, the river of
                                                                                                                  her childhood she yearned to return to! It’s been
Director’s note The film happens in a time when                                                                   long since father and son had stopped talking, the BANGLADESH
Afghanistan was not an Islamic country. No one has         Afghanistan                                            brother brands him as “spoilt” and suggests selling
made a fiction film about that time until now. I think                                                            the house. Yet against their will, Bijoy takes her ash- Director: Kamar Ahmad Simon
                                                           Director: Shahrbanoo Sadat                                                                                     Producers: Beginning Production (Bangladesh),
one of the challenges for me; will be to portrait          Producers: Adomeit Berlin (Germany), La Fabrica        es and boards a train for the border, for a land they   Weydemann Bros (Germany), Good Fortune
women and their costumes. The women in the film            Nocturna (France), Adomeit Film (Denmark)              left 17 years ago!                                      Films (France)
are wearing miniskirts and are not using scarf. My         German WCF partner: Adomeit Berlin                                                                              German WCF partner: Weydemann Bros
                                                           World sales: tbc                                                                                                World sales: tbc
biggest challenge is the last part of the film, when                                                              Director’s note It was in 2005 and it all started with
war starts and Mujahedeen take over the orphan-            Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2017            a friend calling me from a foreign land. His mother      Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2017
age. Talking about civil war is taboo in Afghanistan.      Funding amount: 60.000 €                               had just passed away; he wished to bring her ashes       Funding amount: 40.000 €

22                                                                                                                                                                                                                            23
Vendrá la muerte y tendrá tus ojos
Death will come and shall have your eyes
by José Luis Torres Leiva

                                                                                                                  VI
                                                                                                                  Taste
                                                                                                                  by Lê Bảo

Synopsis Ana is in her 50’s and is the head nurse         reflection exercises about work, love and death         Synopsis Bassley, a Nigerian illegal, plays in the Viet-   I want to approach TASTE in a more contemplative
of the city’s hospital. María is 42 years old and a       there has been in the history of literature.            namese football league to support his son back             way. To respect the spaces as living entities that
mathematics teacher in a small school. They live in                                                               home. When he breaks his leg, his contract is ter-         breathe, to observe the characters inhabiting that
a small town in the south of Chile. They have been        Within the project lays a desire to speak about         minated. With nowhere to go, Bassley finds work as         space in an unobstructed way.
a couple for 20 years, but had never lived together       death and to totally move away from its clichés         a masseur at a salon. Seeking additional income, he
until the day Maria was diagnosed with terminal           and stereotypes. To speak not about the end of a        also works as a prostitute. Over the course of three
cancer. This illness will mark a sign in their lives.     life but rather of the beginning and the possibility    days, he and four women clean together, cook to-
Maria decides against any kind of treatment and           of something new, of a hope of those who stay, a        gether, eat together, sleep together, and have sex.
they sell all their belongings and move to a small        self-discovery that is necessary to grow as a person.   Afterwards, Bassley wires the money he has earned
cottage in the middle of a forest where they live                                                                 to Nigeria. He tries to enter the lives of the women
until the day Maria dies. This is how they fall in love                                                           in more ordinary ways. They have moved on, but
again, living together for the first time, facing the                                                             something in him has changed.
unbeatable death and determined to strengthen                                                                                                                                Vietnam
their relationship.                                       Chile                                                   Director’s note The idea for TASTE came to me
                                                                                                                                                                             Director: Lê B ảo
                                                                                                                  when I was in high school. I observed tired young
                                                          Director: José Luis Torres Leiva                                                                                   Producers: Le Bien Pictures (Vietnam),
Director’s note DEATH WILL COME AND SHALL                 Producers: Globo Rojo Films (Chile), Constanza Sanz     African men sitting at the back of the bus at the end      E&W Films (Singapore), Deuxième Ligne Films (France),
HAVE YOUR EYES is the name of a famous poem               Films (Argentina), Autentika Films (Germany)            of the day. This image stayed with me.                     Petit Film (France), Wild Bunch Germany (Germany)
by Italian writer Cesare Pavese, whom I discovered        German WCF partner: Autentika Films                                                                                German WCF partner: Wild Bunch Germany
                                                          World sales: tbc                                                                                                   World sales: Wild Bunch (France)
around 10 years ago and who totally captivated                                                                    In Saigon, there are many Africans and they are often
me with his book “The Business of Living”, per-           Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2017         preyed upon. I do not want to make a film that ex-         Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2018
haps one of the clearest and most awesome self-           Funding amount: 40.000 €                                ploits the plight of an African man living in Vietnam.     Funding amount: 30.000 €

24                                                                                                                                                                                                                              25
WCF
                                                                                                                        PRODUCTION SUPPORT
                                                                                                                   finished films 2017–2019

La Vaca que Cantó Una
Canción Sobre el Futuro
THE COW THAT SANG A SONG ABOUT THE FUTURE
by Francisca Alegría

Synopsis The death of hundreds of cows brings                attention. It is as if we need nature to literally
Cecilia (45) and her children to her father’s dairy          speak…or sing to us.
farm in the south of Chile. There she encounters her
mother Magdalena (33), whose suicide has marked
the family. While agonising animals sing about the
future of the human race, Cecilia embarks on the
path of understanding her mother and listening to
nature’s voice.

Director’s note In 2017, there was a mass death
of fish in a river in Valdivia. Three years earlier, thou-
sands of black-necked swans died in the same river,
a few months after the installation of a paper mill.
These two cases are but a tiny example of the cur-           Chile
rent state of the world, where the destruction of en-
                                                             Director: Francisca Alegría
tire ecosystems has become normalized. It would              Producers: Jirafa (Chile), Cinema Defacto (France),
be easy to blame the big companies that make                 Snowglobe (Denmark), Bananeira Filmes (Brazil)
billions at the expense of our natural resources,            German WCF partner: tbc
                                                             World sales: tbc
but that would be ignoring our responsibility as a
society and denying our free will as human beings.           Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2018
The signs are loud and clear, but we are not paying          Funding amount: 40.000 €

26
Al-Taqareer Hawl
Sarah Wa Saleem
THE REPORTS ON
SARAH AND SALEEM
by Muayad Alayan

                                                                                                                         Breve historia
                                                                                                                         del planeta verde
                                                                                                                         Brief Story from
                                                                                                                         the Green Planet
                                                                                                                         by Santiago Loza

                                                                                         See also Distribution Support

Synopsis The affair between a married Palestin-             World premiere Rotterdam International Film                  Synopsis Tania is a trans girl who performs her        had dealt with certain experiences. The movie is
ian man and a married Israeli woman in Jerusalem            Festival 2018, Hivos Tiger Competition                       shows at night clubs in Buenos Aires. Pedro is a       about the power of the weak. The hidden strength
takes a dangerous political dimension when they                                                                          creature of the night, a regular dancer, a young gay   of outcasts. It is a tribute to all the losers. And an
are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time            Key festivals and awards Rotterdam Interna-                  man. Daniela works as a waitress in a bar. She is      act of poetic justice.
leaving them and their partners to deal with more           tional Film Festival 2018, Hubert Bals Fund Audience         dealing with a break-up, and is deeply melancholic.
than their broken marriages.                                Award and Tiger Award, Special Mention, Rotterdam            The three are friends and went to school together      World premiere Berlin International Film Festival
                                                            International Film Festival 2018; Best Actress and           in their hometown. Tania receives the news that        2019, Panorama
Director’s note By following the story of two cou-          Best Film, Durban International Film Festival 2018;          her grandmother has died. They find an alien body
ples in Jerusalem, the film depicts life in the holy city   Grand Jury Prize, Seattle International Film Festival        in her grandmother’s house, alongside a letter in      Key festival and awards Berlin International Film
and how it reacts to a social drama that can happen         2018                                                         which she asks Tania to please take the creature to    Festival 2019
anywhere in the world, but with the crushing social                                                                      the place where it first appeared. Pedro, Daniela
and political pressures of the setting, the characters                                                                   and Tania start a long and mysterious journey.
are pushed to act selfishly and hurtfully towards one       Palestine, 2018                                                                                                     Argentina, 2019
another in order to survive. How much pressure can                                                                       Director’s note I want to make a movie about
                                                            Director: Muayad Alayan                                                                                             Director: Santiago Loza
one endure in order to do the right thing and avoid                                                                      beloved and hurt people, who are dragged to live
                                                            Producers: Palcine productions (Palestine),                                                                         Producers: Constanza Sanz Palacios
acting against one’s moral instinct? Are humans             Manderley Films (Germany), Key Films (Netherlands),          through an extraordinary situation, forced to expe-    Films Srl (Argentina), Autentika Films (Germany),
able to risk the privileges they have to do the right       Monofilms (Mexico)                                           rience a huge and strange adventure. An existen-       Anavilhana Filmes (Brazil)
thing towards others? The film presents the story           German WCF partner: Manderley Films                          tial journey between the banal and the profound,       German WCF partner: Autentika Films
                                                            World sales: The Heretic Outreach (Greece)                                                                          World sales: tbc
from the perspective of all characters involved and                                                                      the daily and the sublime. I know the three actors.
the various choices they make.                              Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2017                  For this film, I was inspired by some elements of      Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016
                                                            Funding amount: 50.000 €                                     their personal lives, the courage with which they      Funding amount: 30.000 €

28                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  29
LA CAMA
THE BED
by Mónica Lairana
                                                                                                                  COCOTE
                                                                                                                  by Nelson Carlos De Los Santos

Synopsis It’s a hot summer in Buenos Aires.              World premiere Berlin International Film Festival        Synopsis Alberto, a gardener working in the city,        World premiere Locarno International Film Festival
George (58) and Mabel (56) spend their last 24 hours     2018, Forum                                              travels to his hometown to attend a funeral for his      2017, Signs of Life
together as a couple, locked in their family home.                                                                father, who was killed by a policeman. Upon arrival,
The house has been sold, and now they have to dis-       Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film       he finds that there is no burial, rather a three-day     Key festivals and awards Signs of Life Best Film
mantle it and to divide up all their material belong-    Festival 2018, New Horizons Film Festival 2018, Best     ritual to mourn and celebrate his death. Having          Award, Locarno International Film Festival 2017; To-
ings before the moving van arrives. That morning,        director and best actress awards Mar del Plata Inter-    changed his beliefs to become a Protestant, how-         ronto International Film Festival 2017; San Sebastian
Jorge and Mabel try to fuck in several positions, but    national Film Festival 2018; Kerala International Film   ever, Alberto sees this ritual, with its Catholic and    International Film Festival 2017; Rotterdam Interna-
it’s all in vain. They both end up crying. The rest of   Festival 2018                                            African roots, as something satanic and immoral.         tional Film Festival 2018, Best Latin American Film,
the day, locked in their home, they move furniture,                                                               Overwhelmed, Alberto is lost in the small town life,     Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2017; New
eat, have a shower, laugh, pack things, cry, laugh                                                                his thoughts confront different gods, and the idea of    Horizons International Film Festival 2018,
again, find their dead cat, bury their cat, play with                                                             murder presents itself as the only solution to restore
their dog, throw away stuff. And in the middle of                                                                 some kind of order.
these emotional ups and downs, they say goodbye          Argentina, 2018                                                                                                   DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, 2017
to each other.                                                                                                    Director’s note I have always been interested in
                                                         Director: Mónica Lairana                                                                                          Director: Nelson Carlos De Los Santos
                                                                                                                  the origins of the violence in my country. A strange
                                                         Producers: Gema Films (Argentina), Sutor                                                                          Producers: Guasabara Cine (Dominican Republic),
Director’s note THE BED, my first feature-length         Kolonko (Germany), Topkapi Films (Netherlands),          violence, silent, always lurking. To talk about vio-     Nabis Filmgroup (Argentina), Pandora Film
film, revolves mostly around the bodies of an old        3 Moinhos (Brazil)                                       lence, I ask from what point do we constitute mo-        Produktion (Germany)
man and a woman, who, after 30 years of marriage,        German WCF partner: Sutor Kolonko                        rality? COCOTE becomes a platform where these            German WCF partner: Pandora Film Produktion
                                                         World sales: Gema Films (Argentina)                                                                               World sales: Luxbox (France)
are forced to spend their last 24 hours together be-                                                              religions, these institutions that produce values,
fore finally separating.                                 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016              confront and try to defend themselves.                   Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014
                                                         Funding amount: 30.000 €                                                                                          Funding amount: 30.000 €

30                                                                                                                                                                                                                           31
Etz Te’ena
                                                                                                                    Fig Tree
                                                                                                                    by Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian
En Attendant les Hirondelles
UNTIL THE BIRDS RETURN
by Karim Moussaoui

Synopsis Six main characters are revealed through        World premiere Cannes International Film Festival          Synopsis Fourteen-year-old Mina lives in civil              with friends and the next witnessing them being
three different narratives. Mourad (65) is focussed      2017, Un Certain Regard                                    war-torn Ethiopia. One day, her Jewish family is pre-       kidnapped.
on his life: his work, his wife, his son. He will do                                                                sented with the opportunity to escape the war by
anything to avoid trouble, even at the risk of mak-      Key festivals and awards Cannes International              fleeing to Israel. But Mina won’t leave her boyfriend,      World premiere Toronto International Film Festi-
ing immoral choices. Aicha (25) is trying to forget      Film Festival 2017; Sarajevo Film Festival 2017;           Eli, behind. Confronting the war head on, she makes         val 2018, Discovery section
her past by marrying a decent man, hoping to start       Vienna International Film Festival 2017; Warsaw Film       desperate plans to save the love of her life before
a new life with him. On the way to her new home,         Festival 2017, Gil Parrondo and Special Jury Award,        their childhood ends.                                       Key festivals and awards Eurimages Audentia
she starts having second thoughts. Dahman (45) is a      Gijón International Film Festival 2017, Jerusalem In-                                                                  Award, Toronto International Film Festival 2018; Best
doctor, also hoping to start a new life. He is waiting   ternational Film Festival 2018, Best First Film, Lumiere   Director’s note I spent the first years of my life in       Cinematography Award of the Award of the Israeli
patiently for a promotion that will improve his social   Awards 2018                                                Ethiopia, sheltered under my grandmother’s loving           Film Academy 2018
standing, which in turn might open up the possibil-                                                                 wings. Through the gaps in her feathers I viewed a
ity of marriage. All of them are forced to deal with                                                                magical world, occasionally interrupted by horror. I
the consequences of the choices they have made.                                                                     was 10 years old when I left Ethiopia and despite the       ISRAEL, ETHIOPIA, 2018
                                                         ALGERIA, 2017                                              war, my incognisant last days in Ethiopia passed by
                                                                                                                                                                                Director: Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian
Director’s note The stories in my film are about                                                                    quite normally.
                                                         Director: Karim Moussaoui                                                                                              Producers: Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd (Israel),
ordinary people living ordinary lives. It brings to      Producers: Prolégomènes (Algeria), Les Films Pelléas,                                                                  av medien penrose GmbH (Germany), En Companie
the screen people’s aspirations for a better life, set   (France), NiKo Film (Germany)                              I would like to create a world similar to the one that      des Lamas (France)
against the actual accomplishment of such aspira-        German WCF partner: NiKo Film                              has accompanied me since childhood. Yet the heart           German WCF partner: AV medien penrose GmbH
                                                         World sales: MK2 (France)                                                                                              World sales: Films Boutique (Germany)
tions in building modern Algerian society and work-                                                                 of the film will be Mina’s daily life. Through Mina, I’ll
ing towards changing it for the future.                  Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016            describe the surreal situation of building a normal         Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016
                                                         Funding amount: 40.000 €                                   life during wartime; one moment playing peacefully          Funding amount: 40.000 €

32                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      33
Flatland
                                                                                                                       by Jenna Bass

FÉlicitÉ
Felicity
by Alain Gomis

                                                                                   See also WCF Distribution Support

Synopsis Felicity is a singer in Kinshasa, Demo-        World Premiere Berlin International Film Festival              Synopsis FLATLAND is a contemporary, all-female          unique portrait of femininity against a harsh frontier-
cratic Republic of Congo. She sings in an nganda        2017, Competition                                              western-adventure that tells the story of a lonely po-   land, and questions what it means to be a woman
(bar) resident band and raises her 16-year-old son,                                                                    licewoman longing to reunite with her fugitive boy-      in contemporary South Africa and the world at large.
Samo, alone. One morning, however, she receives         Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film             friend; while simultaneously leading a murder investi-
a call from the hospital saying that Samo has just      Festival 2017, Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Berlin, Inter-    gation wherein a newly-married former housekeeper        World premiere Berlin International Film festival
been admitted after an accident. He risks losing        national Film festival 2017; Golden Stallion Award, FES-       and a heavily-pregnant teen are the prime suspects.      2019, Panorama
his leg if Felicity doesn’t find the money for an op-   PACO 2017; Special Jury Prize, Chicago International           Helped and hindered along the way by an ensemble
eration. Felicity embarks on a desperate quest that     Film Festival 2017; Human Rights in Cinema Competi-            of wayward denizens, the unlikely trio soon become       Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film
takes her across the city, into her past, her dreams…   tion, Istanbul International Film Festival 2017; Toronto       embroiled in a cross-country chase as they navigate      Festival 2019
But just as she is about to reach her goal, her son’s   International Film Festival 2017 FIPRESCI Prize, Palm          the Karoo semi-desert in freezing winter, at times on
leg is amputated.                                       Springs International Film Festival 2018                       horseback, all the while in search of a new life and a
                                                                                                                       fresh start.
Director’s note I imagine this film as a song, a hyp-   SENEGAL, 2017                                                                                                           SOUTH AFRICA, 2019
notic and sensual blues song. I imagine it as a dan-                                                                   Director’s note Femininity, today more than ever,
                                                        Director: Alain Gomis                                                                                                   Director: Jenna Bass
gerous crossing, through rapids and clouds, on the                                                                     has become embattled and undefinable. And then,
                                                        Producers: Andolfi (France), Granit Films (France),                                                                     Producers: Proper Film (South Africa),
borders between the night and our interior forests,     Cinékap (Senegal), Need productions (Belgium),                 there’s “What is South Africa?” a country named          Deal productions (Luxembourg),
before we reach and breathe the cool air of a new       Abbout Productions (Lebanon)                                   purely after its place on the map, with 11 official      IGC Films, unafilm (Germany), unafilm (Germany)
day.                                                    German WCF partner: Katuh Studio                               languages and countless more peoples and cultures        German WCF partner: IGC Films
                                                        World sales: Jour2Fête (France)                                                                                         World sales: The Match Factory (Germany)
                                                                                                                       without their own names. For these three differ-
I want to make a film as one sings with a woman, to     Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015                ent but equally desperate women, the journey of          Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014
descend into the abyss with her.                        Funding amount: 40.000 €                                       self-discovery within FLATLAND paints a vivid and        Funding amount: 45.000 €

34                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  35
LAS HEREDERAS
                                                                                                                     THE HEIRESSES
                                                                                                                     by Marcelo Martinessi

Í e Yarar Bir ey
Something useful
by Pelin Esmer

                                                                                                                                                                                                   See also WCF Distribution Support WCF
                                                                                                                                                                                                 See also Distribution Support WCF Europe

Synopsis Leyla (42), a lawyer and a poet, takes           World premiere Istanbul International Film Festival        Synopsis Chela and Chiquita, both descended               This film comes out of my desire to heal.
the long-distance train to attend her high school         2017                                                       from wealthy families in Asunción, Paraguay, have
reunion dinner. On the train, she meets Canan (21),                                                                  been together for over 30 years. But recently their       World premiere Berlin International Film Festival
a young nursing student in distress. As the conversa-     Key festivals and awards FIPRESCI Award, Istanbul          financial situation has worsened. When their debts        2018, Competition
tion develops, Leyla learns that Canan is travelling to   International Film Festival 2017; Golden Boll, Adana       lead to Chiquita being imprisoned on fraud charges,
assist with the suicide of a paralysed man, Yavuz (45),   Film Festival 2017; Seattle International Film festival    Chela is forced to face a new reality. Driving for the    Key festivals and awards Alfred Bauer Prize, Silver
who wants to die. At the end of the long overnight        2018                                                       first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi   Bear for Best Actress (Ana Brun) and FIPRESCI Award,
trip, surrounded by the stories of people both on                                                                    service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela    Berlin International Film Festival 2018; Best Director,
and off the train, Leyla decides to accompany Canan                                                                  settles into her new life, she encounters the much        FIPRESCI Award, Cartagena IFF 2018; Golden Athena,
on her difficult visit.                                                                                              younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new        Athens IFF Paraguay’s Submission for the 91st Acad-
                                                                                                                     connection. Chela finally begins to break out of her      emy Awards 2018…
Director’s note Why does Leyla decide to accom-                                                                      shell and engage with the world, embarking on her
pany a man who wants to die, and a young woman            Turkey, 2017                                               own personal, intimate revolution.                        Paraguay, 2018
who has taken on the difficult task of killing him?
                                                          Director: Pelin Esmer                                                                                                Director: Marcelo Martinessi
To help them? Because she is fascinated by them?
                                                          Producers: Sinefilm (Turkey), Mars Production (Turkey),
                                                                                                                     Director’s note I “inherited” the diaries of a woman      Producers: La Babosa Cine (Paraguay), Pandora Film-
Because she is fascinated by death? In order to have      Mîtosfilm (Germany), Les Films de l’Après-Midi (France),   who spent most of her life in the confinement of her      produktion (Germany), Esquina Filmes (Brazil), Mutante
done something useful? When art exists as a powerful      Topkapi Films (The Netherlands)                            own home. Transforming her experiences into a nar-        Cine (Uruguay), Norks Filmprodukjson (Norway)
and magical tool for understanding life, why does the     German WCF partner: Mîtosfilm                              rative feature film made me think about Paraguay, my      German WCF partner: Pandora Filmproduktion
                                                          World sales: Sinefilm (Turkey)                                                                                       World sales: Luxbox (France)
artist continually seek to do something meaningful?                                                                  prison-country, and our system of “values” passed
                                                          Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015            from one generation to the next, like a hereditary        Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016
                                                          Funding amount: 40.000 €                                   disease. A system that doesn’t allow us to change.        Funding amount: 40.000 €

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