Venice titles including Fyzal Boulifa’s Morocco-set drama The Damned Don’t Cry and Penelope Cruz-starring melodrama L’Immensità are among the prestige international titles on UK-Ireland distributor Curzon’s 2023 slate.
The line-up represents filmmakers from Italy, Spain, Japan, France and the UK.
“The past year has been a difficult one for international film in the UK,” said Louisa Dent, Curzon Film managing director, “but we remain absolutely committed to championing the best cinema from around the world.”
UK filmmaker Boulifa’s second feature, after debut Lynn + Lucy, follows a single mother and her teenage son who are forced to live on the fringes of Moroccan society. The Damned Don’t Cry premiered at Venice sidebar Giornate degli Autori. It was produced by Karim Debbagh, Gary Farkas, Clement Lepoutre and Olivier Muller, and acquired from Paris-based sales outfit Charades.
Penelope Cruz stars in L’Immensità from Italian filmmaker Emanuele Crialese. In 1970s Rome, a young teenager (Luana Giuliani) is beginning to question her identity, preferring to go by the male name Andrea, and harbouring a suspicion that she hails from another galaxy. Cruz plays her mother, who grapples with trying to protect her children from their abusive father. Producers are Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Dimitri Rassam, Ardavan Safaee, Jerome Seydoux, with Pathe International representing sales.
There’s also Spanish-French psychological thriller The Beasts, directed by Spain’s Rodrigo Sorogoyen and starring Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs as a French couple who settle in a remote Galician village to run an organic farm but whose arrival is seen as a threat to the villagers way of life. It was acquired from Spain’s Latido Films.
French Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux and her son David Ernaux-Briot together direct personal essay The Super 8 Years, created from a collage of Super 8 films, shot between 1972 and 1981, and picked up from Paris-based Totem Films.
Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa’s debut Plan 75 is set in a near future where the ageing Japanese population is seen as a threat to the economy, so the government begins a programme that encourages euthanasia for people over 75 years of age. Chieko Baishô and Hayato Isomura star, with Paris-based Urban Sales handling international sales.
These five titles join already-announced films for 2023 such as Italian filmmaker Carolina Cavalli’s debut Amanda, which played at Toronto following its first outing in Venice’s Orizzonti Extra section. Benedetta Porcaroli plays 24-year-old Amanda, a friendless soul who decides to set about trying to track down her first friend from when she was a toddler. Plus, there is Mario Martone’s Nostalgia; Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland and Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo.
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