Projects to Czech out in Cannes

A raft of Czech production companies are here in Cannes with a range of projects including an drama set in Afghanistan.

Prague-based Sirena Films is planning to shoot high-end, Afghan-set TV series Nobel from Norwegian director Per-Olav Sørensen (The Heavy Water War) in August. This is a coproduction with Norway’s Monster Scripted.

Sirena is also partnering with Zentropa on Kristian Levring’s Devil’s Lake, sold by Zentropa, and is in negotiations with HBO to make detective TV series Nearest And Dearest, about missing person cases.

Negativ has a new feature from festival favourite Bohdan Slama, winner of San Sebastian’s Golden Shell for Something Like Happiness. Slama’s latest project is titled Icy Mother.

Axman Production is in Cannes looking to close financing on Czech-US coproduction American Chick from Viktor Taus. Scripted by Evita Nausova, this is the story of a teenage girl from a Czech background growing up as part of an American circus. She is kidnapped by her mother and dragged back to Eastern Europe where she is locked up in a Communist juvenile institution.

Fellow production outfit Endorfilm is in post-production on Olmo Omerzu’s $1.7m Family Film, sold by Sebastien Chesneau’s new company, Cercamon.

The project is a multi-territory coproduction involving Slovenia (Arsmedia), Germany (42Film), Slovakia (Punkchart Films), France (Rouge) and Croatia (Studio Dim).

The project has Eurimages support. Endorfilm is also coproducing She Is A Harbour from Iveta Grofova, the director of Slovak Oscar contender Made In Ash.

Meanwhile, Czech producer on the move Jan Macola of Mimesis Film is preparing ambitious new feature Il Boemo, which will be directed by Petr Vaclav. This is about composer Josef Myslivecek, the teacher of Mozart, who sacrificed everything to be free, loved and famous but died alone, sick and forgotten. The film is a companion piece to doc Confession of the Vanished, which Mimesis recently completed.