Le Pacte takes on La Terre Outragee, Dignitas and Just A Beginning

Le Pacte International has added three titles to its slate in advance of the Cannes Film Festival.

The acquisitions include La Terre Outragee, a film from Odessa…Odessa! director Michale Boganim; Dignitas from director Olias Barco and documentary Just A Beginning directed by Jean-Pierre Pozzi and Pierre Barougier.

La Terre Outragee is currently in pre-production. The story begins in a small Ukraine town under the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear station. The timely film comes as the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster approaches and follows the travails of a group of characters from just days before the disaster and through the catastrophe. Fast-forwarding ten years, the film revisits the town and the devastation its landscape and inhabitants have suffered.

Olga Kurylenko (Quantum Of Solace) stars in the Les Fims du Poisson production. ARTE France co-produces with Nikovantastic Films and Lama Films.

In post-production, Dignitas (working title) is a black comedy drama from the production team behind Man Bites Dog. The story follows Dr. Kruger, a pioneer whose dream is to create a therapeutic framework where suicide is no longer a tragedy but a simple, medically assisted act. His clinic draws a cast of strange folks boasting a death wish.  

Delivery is set for this autumn and a promo will be available in Cannes.

Just A Beginning is a documentary set inside the education system. The directors followed a nursery school class for a period of two years in which the children study philosophy. The kids approach such subjects as love, power, difference, growing up and death and end up delivering a unique testimony on an innovative experiment.

The film is produced by Ciel de Paris and will screen in its premiere at the Cannes market.

Also on Le Pacte’s slate are competition title On Tour by Mathieu Amalric and the market premiere of Manuel Poirier’s family comedy Cafe Du Pont.