EFM 2022: The buzz titles from Germany, the Nordics, Italy and Russia

Germany

From Germany, Berlin-based m-appeal has picked up Return To Dust (Yin Ru Chen Yan), the Berlinale Competition title from Chinese director Li Ruijun. Starring Wu Renlin and Hai-Qing, it is the story of a humble couple who have both been cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. Against the odds, they form a close bond. m-appeal has a second title in official selection, Concerned Citizen from Israeli director Idan Haguel, which screens in Panorama. This is a satirical, darkly comic look at the insidious power of racism, white guilt and the unstoppable creep of gentrification.

Now owned by Mubi, leading world sales company The Match Factory has two titles in competition: A E I O U — A Quick Alphabet Of Love by Nicolette Krebitz; and Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush by Andreas Dresen. The company is also bringing one of its Sundance titles to EFM online, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future by Francisca Alegria, which premiered in the festival’s world cinema dramatic competition.

The Playmaker Munich has a packed EFM slate. The company is launching sales on dark comedy Holy Shit!, directed by Lukas Rinker, about an architect who wakes up stuck in a toilet on a construction site shortly before a demolition blast. A first trailer will be available to buyers. Another Playmaker title, Jons Jonsson’s Axiom, about an eloquent young museum attendant who turns out not to be what he seems, has its world premiere in the Berlinale Encounters section. Playmaker is also hosting a private screening of completed sci-fi Rubikon, directed by Magdalena Lauritsch and starring George Blagden and Mark Ivanir. 

Global Screen will be giving a market premiere to Tobias Wiemann’s The Path, about two children fleeing from the Nazis along a secret route through the Pyrenees. The company is also pre-selling animated movie The Amazing Maurice, about a streetwise tomcat with a money-making scam. Based on a Terry Pratchett novel, and with a voice cast including Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, David Thewlis and Himesh Patel, the film is set for a wide UK release via Sky towards the end of the year.

Beta Cinema has its new film The Forger screening as a Berlinale Special Gala. Directed by Maggie Peren, it tells the story of a young Jewish forger living under the noses of the Nazis in 1940s Berlin, and is receiving both online and physical market screenings. Beta is also holding a private, buyers-only screening of My Neighbor, Adolf, Leon Prudovsky’s comedy drama about a lonely Holo­caust survivor living in South America in the early 1960s who discovers his neighbour might be the German dictator. Udo Kier stars.

Films Boutique is giving a premiere to its Sundance title Gentle, directed by Laszlo Csuja and Anna Nemes, about a female bodybuilder and the sacrifices she has to make to excel at her sport.

Cologne-based Media Luna is beginning sales on dark Irish drama Ann, directed by Ciaran Creagh. It is in post-production and should be ready by early summer.

Philippe Bober’s Berlin-based Coproduction Office is focusing on its Competition title Rimini, about a washed-up nightclub singer guilty about his past. The film is directed by Austria’s Ulrich Seidl.

Berlin-based Picture Tree International is starting sales on its genre crossover film Without Her from Iranian filmmaker Arian Vazirdaftari. It tells the story of Roya, a middle-aged woman about to build a new life away from Iran who, after an unsettling encounter, begins to think she is losing her identity.

From Dusseldorf, Patra Spanou Films is selling Romanian drama Blue Moon, one of the hits of San Sebastian Film Festival.

Atlas International is beginning sales on its Germany-Russia thriller Roxy, from Dito Tsintsadze. Still in production, the film is about a middle-aged taxi driver who becomes embroiled with Russian arms dealers. Atlas will be screening some of the first footage during the EFM. 

By Geoffrey Macnab

Nordics

TrustNordisk has just boarded food documentary Michelin Stars II — Nordic By Nature by Rasmus Dinesen, which premiered in San Sebastian’s culinary section and explores a Michelin-starred restaurant on the Faroe Islands. The company’s other recent addition is Frelle Petersen’s Danish family drama Forever. TrustNordisk also has Malou Reymann’s Unruly, which is now in post and is a period drama about teenage girls at a 1930s home for “morally feeble” young women. Footage from the film was shown at Göteborg’s Work In Progress event, where it got a strong response. The company will also present two online market screenings of Christian Tafdrup’s Sundance buzz hit Speak No Evil.

REInvent’s promo reel will include highlights from Alex Herron’s horror thriller Leave (one of the first REinvent Chills titles), about a young woman (Alicia Von Rittberg) haunted by a malevolent spirit; Trine Piil’s coming-of-age thriller Nothing, a Germany-Denmark co‑production; and Bjorn Runge’s period love story Burn All My Letters starring Bill Skarsgard, Asta Kamma August and Gustav Lindh.

On the episodic side, REinvent has a market screening of The Guilty director Gustav Möller’s first TV series, crime drama The Dark Heart, which recently launched at Sundance. Episode links are available for Trom, a crime series shot in the Faroe Islands starring Ulrich Thomsen, recently snapped up by the BBC. REinvent also has Sanna Lenken’s Comedy Queen in Generation Kplus.

LevelK has just boarded Anders Klarlund’s Danish film The Last Client, described as a Nordic noir about a psychotherapist and her dangerous new client; the film will have an EFM market screening. In Generation, LevelK is selling the Netherlands-Belgium stop-motion animation Oink, about a nine-year-old girl who adopts a messy pig and, fresh from Sundance, Alli Haapasalo’s lively Finnish drama Girl Picture, about young women learning about sex and love.

Eyewell has two new titles for EFM. Kadri Kousaar (Magnus) directs the kidnapping thriller Deserted, an Estonia-Sweden-Finland co-production that premiered at Busan. Carl Moberg directs the Sweden-Denmark co-production A Thousand Hours, a romantic drama about a Danish musician who finds a new life in Berlin.

The Yellow Affair has picked up documentary Just Animals, directed by Saila Kivela and Vesa Kuosmanen and produced by Finland’s prolific Tuffi Films. The film has market screenings during EFM and follows the life of an animal-rights activist as she fights legal battles and figures out her role in the movement. The Yellow Affair also has Welby Ings’ New Zealand drama Punch, starring Tim Roth, which is now in post.

By Wendy Mitchell

Italy

Intramovies’ EFM line-up includes crime drama Una Femmina — The Code Of Silence, the feature debut of documentary and shorts director Francesco Costabile, which is premiering in Panorama. The Rome-based company is also kickstarting sales on Turkish coming-of-age drama Time Of Impatience, directed by first-timer Aydin Orak.

The First Day Of My Life, the new film by Paolo Genovese starring Toni Servillo, headlines True Colours’ slate. The company is also selling Costanza Quatriglio’s The Virus Smuggler, about a woman framed for taking germ samples from her lab.

The Open Reel is coming to EFM with Santiago Leon’s The Good Manners, a Colombian LGBTQ+ coming-of-age film, and will kick off sales on Alejandro Alonso’s Night Inside. The drama is an Argentina-Chile co-production.

Minerva Pictures will be showing buyers Bad Blood, an urban Italian noir that marks the feature debut of Simone Hebara.

Filmexport will be selling Shadow Of The Wolf, Alberto Gelpi’s pandemic-delayed thriller.

TVCO’s Italy-France co-production Italia — Fire And Ashes, about Italian silent cinema, will be screened for the first time at EFM. The documentary is directed by Céline Gailleurd and Olivier Bohler and features the voice of Isabella Rossellini for the Italian and English versions, and Fanny Ardant for the French version. Vincenzo Mosca’s company will also kickstart sales on Girls Don’t Cry, the feature directing debut of Andrea Zuliani.

Rai Com is bringing horror thriller Flowing, the second film from Paolo Strippoli after he co-directed Netflix’s A Classic Horror Story. The company will also kickstart sales on Sleepless Nights, Kisses For Breakfast from comedy actor-turned director Francesco Mandelli.

Coccinelle brings Esther’s Orchestra, a Danish romantic comedy directed by Alexander Bak Sagmo (Needle Boy), while Fandango handles sales on What A Life!, an adaptation of Flaubert novel Bouvard Et Pécuchet that is the directorial debut of Giuseppe Battiston.

By Gabriele Niola

Russia

Central Partnership has new thriller December, which explores the last few days in the short life of the celebrated provincial poet Sergei Esenin — the lover of US dancer Isadora Duncan. The film is directed by Klim Shipenko. Central Partnership will also have footage of Sergey Mokritskiy’s First Oscar and will be pushing Vasilisa Kuzmina’s Nika, based on the real story of Soviet child poet Nika Turbina.

Katerina Mikhaylova’s Moscow-based Vega Film is presenting its Berlinale Generation entry The Land Of Sasha, from director Julia Trofimova. This is a coming-of-age drama about teenage high-school graduate Sasha who yearns to be a painter but worries about letting down his mother.

Also from Russia, Mars Media is presenting its fantasy film Woland, directed by Michael Lockshin and based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic novel The Master And Margarita.

All Media will be screening its feature Milk starring Yuliya Peresild (who last year went to space in Klim Shipenko’s The Challenge) and directed by Karen Oganesyan.

Art Pictures will be screening comedy Brothers, directed by Daniel Lumerz, while Riveret Films is presenting Once In The Desert directed by Andrey Kravchuk.

By Geoffrey Macnab

Rest of the World

Austrian documentary specialist Autlook is beginning sales on Myanmar Diaries, a series of short films made anonymously by the Myanmar Film Collective in the face of last year’s military coup. The films have been edited by creative producer Corinne van Egeraat and her director partner Petr Lom. Autlook also has Sundance title The Mission, about US missionaries, and Rita Baghdadi’s Sirens, about an all-female heavy metal band from Beirut.

Vienna-based sales agent Square Eyes, headed by Wouter Jansen, has added two new features in Berlinale official selection to its market slate. The company has taken world sales rights to Philip Scheffner’s Europe (screening in Forum), a drama about an Algerian woman who loses her right to residency in France in strange circumstances. Also on the Square Eyes slate is another Forum project, Afterwater, the second feature from artist and filmmaker Dane Komljen.

Greek outfit Heretic is handling Russian drama Convenience Store, which will be presented in Berlin’s Panorama section. Directed by Michael Borodin and produced by Artem Vasilyev’s Metrafilms, the film deals with the plight of immigrant workers and modern slavery in Moscow. Heretic also has another Panorama title Working Class Heroes by Serbian director Milos Pusic. Starring Jasna Djuricic, the drama explores corruption, capitalism and injustice through the story of a cold-hearted businesswoman working for a construction investor of dubious morals.

Poland’s New Europe Film Sales is pushing Berlin Competition title A Piece Of Sky by Michael Koch, set in a mountain village and looking at the strain on a young couple when a man suffers a brain tumour. The company also has Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson’s Panorama title Beautiful Beings, an Icelandic drama about a gang of young outsiders.

Hungarian state outfit NFI World Sales is launching two new films in the EFM: Kristof Deak’s debut feature The Grandson, billed as a coming-of-age drama disguised as a crime thriller; and Daniel Tiszeker’s romantic comedy Christmas Flame, about a fireman whose life stops sizzling when his wedding proposal goes up in flames.

From the Netherlands, DFW International (the sales arm of Dutch FilmWorks) has added romantic comedy Taste Of Love by Ruud Schuurman to its line-up ahead of the market. Barbara Sloesen stars as chef Monica, who has put her early years in a small provincial village firmly behind her. But when she and her boyfriend want to open a new restaurant at a dream location, she is forced to return to her roots. Also new on the DFW slate is Michiel ten Horn’s family adventure Hotel Sinestra, set during a winter holiday at a Swiss hotel. Eleven-year-old Ava (Bobbie Mulder) wishes that her overprotective parents (Jeroen Spitzenberger and Elise Schaap) would just go away — and then mysteriously all the adults vanish.

Dutch Features has acquired international rights to three new titles ahead of the EFM: dark comedy Herman Kills!, written and directed by Joost Reijmers and Thomas van der Ree; courtroom drama Judgment Call, directed by Saskia Diesing, about a politician accused of rape; and family adventure Detective Bruno.

Amsterdam-based Fortissimo Films is beginning its sales drive on We Might As Well Be Dead, a social satire by Natalia Sinelnikova, starring Ioana Iacob in the lead role. The film opens Perspective Deutsches Kino.

Also from the Netherlands, Incredible Film is premiering family action-adventure Charlie Cooper — The Egg Mystery.

Brussels-based Be For Films gives a market debut to Mathieu Gérault’s South Sentinel, a drama about a soldier returning to France after traumatic experiences in Afghanistan.

Budapest-based Luminescence will be introducing buyers to Russian animated feature How To Save The Immortal. Directed by Roman Artemiev, the film is in production and due for delivery in late summer.

From Israel, Hedva Goldschmidt’s Go2Films has taken sales duties on new feature doc Fiddler’s Journey To The Big Screen, which tells the story behind Norman Jewison’s classic film version of Fiddler On The Roof. The doc is directed by Daniel Rain and narrated by Jeff Goldblum (US distribution is handled by Zeitgeist and Kino Lorber).

Flying high with its award contender Flee, fellow Israeli outfit Cinephil will begin sales on Morgane Dziurla-Petit’s comic family documentary Excess Will Save Us.

Australian outfit Odin’s Eye is hatching its latest animation Little Eggs: An African Adventure, and giving a market debut to teen comedy The Library Boys from first-timer Zane Borg. The company is also pre-selling shark adventure.

By Geoffrey Macnab

• EFM 2022: The buzz titles from the Americas