Feature film projects from The Blue Caftan filmmaker Maryam Touzani and Four Daughters director Kaouther Ben Hania are among 24 titles that have received a combined €6.78m in the latest session of Council of Europe co-production fund Eurimages.
The 24 feature films backed by Eurimages include four documentaries and one animation. Sixteen are to be directed or co-directed by women, representing over 75% of the total funding awarded.
Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s Spanish-language film Calle Malaga was awarded €500,000. It tells the story of a 74-year-old woman who belongs to the Spanish community of Tangier and has to leave her home but unexpectedly rediscovers the possibility of love and sensuality.
Touzani’s previous two films – Adam and The Blue Caftan – premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard and were put forward as Morocco’s Oscar candidate. The Blue Caftan made history in 2022 by becoming the first film from Morocco to be shortlisted. Calle Malaga is produced by Les Films du Nouveau Monde in France, Mod Producciones in Spain, One Two Films in Germany and Velvet Film in Belgium. International sales are handled by Films Boutique.
Meanwhile, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s upcoming fictional feature You Shall Not Make An Image received €430,000. It’s about Bouchra, raised in a mausoleum dedicated to the saint Sidi Sardi, who is confronted by a hostile imam who wants to turn her family home into a mosque. Her life is turned upside down when she meets Ahmed, a cameraman willing to help her make a film about the saint.
Ben Hania’s documentary Four Daughters was shortlisted for best documentary feature and best international feature at the 2024 Oscars after premiering in Cannes.
You Shall Not Make An Image is a co-production between France’s Tanit Films, Germany’s Ma.Ja.De, Sweden’s Laika, Tunisia’s Mime Films, and Belgium’s Kwassa Films. The Party handles international sales.
Elsewhere, French-Iranian director Emily Atef received €400,000 backing for English-language Mercy, an adaptation of Lara Santoro’s eponymous novel. Set in 1997, it is the story of a friendship between a US correspondent in Kenya and a local woman from the slums joining forces to combat the AIDS crisis in the country. International sales are handled by Global Screen. Atef’s 2023 drama One Day We’ll Tell Each Other Everything world premiered in Competition at the Berlinale.
Other projects to win funding include Germany’s Ulrike Tony Vahl’s debut feature The Crux (€500,000), a historical drama set in the last days of the Second World War, and Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi’s Strawberries (€375,000), about three Moroccan women working as strawberry pickers in the Spanish region of Andalusia who decide to fight back against the appalling living and working conditions and culture of sexual harassment.
Eurimages November 2024 funding round
9 Moons (Sp-Bel) dir. Patricia Ortega - €73,000
20 Meters (Slovenia-Ser) dir. Damjan Kozole - €275,000
Calle Malaga (Fr-Sp-Ger-Bel) dir. Maryam Touzani - €500,000
Eurotrash (Ger-Switz-Austria) dir. Frauke Finsterwalder - €350,000
Fairyheart (Hun-Can) dir. Anita Doron - €500,000 – animation
Fixing the War (Ire-Ukr) dirs. Clare Stronge, Vadym Ilkov - €41,000 – documentary
Future Tenses (Greece-Fr) dir. Christos Karakepelis - €140,000 – documentary
I Won’t Die for Love (Sp-Bel) dir. Marta Matute - €315,000
Ivy (Por-Fr) dir. Catarina Mourão - €250,000
La Gradiva (Fr-It) dir. Marine Atlan - €400,000
Mercy (Ger-Fr) dir. Emily Atef - €400,000
Queen of the Stone Age (Ger-Switz) dir. David Bernet - €80,000 – documentary
Sleepless Nights (Por-Fr) dir. Tiago Hespanha - €95,000 – documentary
Strawberries (Fr-Sp-Mor) dir. Laïla Marrakchi - €375,000
Tears of Neon (Pol-Bul) dir. Karolina Bielawska - €127,000
The Crux (Ger-Pol) dir. Ulrike Tony Vahl - €500,000
The Girl (Fr-Bel) dir. Marina Ziolkowski - €400,000
The Golden Age (Fr-It) dir. Bérenger Thouin - €370,000
The Last One for the Road (It-Ger) dir. Francesco Sossai - €300,000
The Station (Fr-Jor-Ger-Neth) dir. Sara Ishaq - €150,000
The Visitor (Lith-Nor-Swe) dir. Vytautas Katkus - €210,000
Washed and Buried (Slov-It-Croatia) dir. Martin Turk - €150,000
Woman, Unknown (Den-Lith-Swe) dir. May el-Toukhy - €349,000
You Shall Not Make an Image (Fr-Ger-Tun-Bel) dir. Kaouther Ben Hania - €430,000
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