Coproduction Office signs on for Play, Meteora

Philippe Bober’s Coproduction Office has added two new titles to their Cannes slate - new feature films by Ruben Östlund (Involuntary) and Spiros Stathoulopoulos (PVC-1). Both projects will follow the company’s model of co-production through Berlin based Essential Filmproduktion and Paris’ Parisienne de Production, with Coproduction Office handling international sales.

Play is the new film by Ruben Östlund, whose previous feature Involuntary won multiple international awards before being distributed in over 15 territories. Östlund’s short film Incident By A Bank, made in preparation for Play, received the Golden Bear at the 2010 Berlinale.

Shooting for Play has recently begun, with the film expected to be completed for mid-2011. The film starts at a a shopping mall where five unknown black boys – all with Somali backgrounds – accuse a group of three young white Swedes of stealing a mobile phone.

Meteora is the new film by Spiros Stathoulopoulos, Greek-Colombian director of the cult hit PVC-1 which screened at Directors’ Fortnight in 2007. It is about a young Greek Orthodox monk who has an illicit relationship with a visiting Russian Orthodox nun. Set in the 12th-century monasteries of Metéora in Greece, the film is produced by Coproduction Office as well as Stathoulopoulos, and stars Theo Alexander - who has appeared in HBO series True Blood.Meteora will wrap shooting by the end of 2010.

Here in Cannes, Coproduction Office has had a brisk start to the market, closing a number of sales on its three titles in official selection. Tender Son - The Frankenstein Project by Kornél Mundruczo (In Competition), Aurora by Cristi Puiu, (Un Certain Regard), and Le Quatro Volte by Michelangelo Frammartino have each sold to Paolo Branco’s Atalanta Filmes for Portugal, Lumière for Belgium, and Filmmuseum for the Netherlands.