Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #114. Fairy – Anna Melikyan

Fairy

Armenian-Russian director Anna Melikyan should have Fairy, her sixth narrative feature, ready for 2020. Produced by Melikyan and Natalya Poklad (who produced Melikyan’s 2017 comedy About Love. For Adults Only), it will serve as the first feature for DP Andrey Maika and composer Kirill Rikhter. Her cast is headlined by Konstantin Khabenskiy, the lead from Timur Bekmambetov’s Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006), joined by Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Seven Years in Tibet; Hannibal) and Tinatin Dalakishvili (who appeared in Melikyan’s 2014 title, Star). Melikyan is still best known for her 2007 sophomore film Mermaid, which won her the Directing Award in the World Dramatic competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize out of the Panorama sidebar in Berlin the same year.

Gist: A virtual reality game creator’s ideas about ‘real’ reality, and how it can be controlled, are tested when he meets a young activist.

Release Date/Prediction: Melikyan was in post-production on Fairy last May and a theatrical release had been initially planned before the end of 2019. She moved onto a new project in September, so we’re predicting she will return to Berlin in 2020, either in a sidebar or competition.