EXCLUSIVE: Black comedy to play in competition at Critics’ Week.
New Europe Film Sales has picked up Asaph Polonsky’s black comedy One Week and a Day and sold all French rights to Sophie Dulac Distribution.
The feature debut of US-born, Israeli filmmaker Polonsky was yesterday named as a competition title in the Critics’ Week sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).
Polonsky is an AFI graduate, whose graduation film Samnang was nominated for an Academy Award in 2013.
One Week and a Day tells a story of a grieving father, who finishes a week of mourning for his late son and is urged by his wife to return to their routine. He instead gets high with a young neighbour and sets out to discover there are still things in life worth living for.
The cast of the film includes well-known Israeli actors Shai Avivi and Evgenia Dodina as the married couple and Tomer Kapon as the eccentric neighbor.
Produced by Naomi Levari and Saar Yogev of Black Sheep Film Productions, the film was developed at the Jerusalem Film Lab and EAVE and won the 2015 Haifa FF Work in Progress Award.
‘Mature debut’
Jan Naszewski, CEO of Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe, said: “I have been following Asaph’s project for many years, ever since I met his producer at EAVE. It’s a very mature debut with a special tone that balances black comedy and emotional drama. We are so proud to bring it to Cannes.”
New Europe is the sales agent behind the Icelandic Cannes winner Rams and Berlinale Silver Bear winner United States of Love.
One Week and a Day will lead New Europe’s Cannes Marché slate.
France deal
The company has also sold all French rights to Sophie Dulac Distribution, a specialist arthouse distributor that has handled films including Turin Horse, Hannah Arendt and The Band’s Visit.
Michel Zana, head of distribution at SDD, said the film “subtly mixes eccentric comedy and contained emotion” and is “a tender but powerful movie on grief and acceptance”.
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