Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #29. Paradis sale – Bertrand Mandico

Published on January 3, 2020

Paradis sale

French director Bertrand Mandico was the breakout hit of 2018 when Cahier du Cinema named his directorial debut The Wild Boys the best film of the year (he premiered the film in the 2017 Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week). Previously lauded as an experimental filmmakers of a variety of short and medium length films (not to mention some M83 music videos), Mandico has reunited with actress Elina Lowensohn (who headlined his debut) for his sophomore film, the fantasy feature Paradis sale (After Blue), which will also star Polish actress Agata Buzek, Camille Rutherford, Anais Thomas, Claire Duburcq, Vimala Pons, Pauline Lorillard (also of The Wild Boys) and newcomer Paula Luna Breitenfelder. Mandico will also be reuniting with Emmanuel Chaumet of Ecce Films is producing and Pascale Granel as DP.

Gist: After Blue is a ‘chimeric virgin planet’ upon which only women can survive. When teenager Roxy frees a criminal buried in the sand, a ruthless woman who quickly kills several people. As punishment, Roxy and her mother are exiled, forced to hunt down this criminal and kill her.

Release Date/Prediction: With filming taking place across November and December of 2019, we expect Mandico to be all set for an ascension into the Venice competition in 2020.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.