Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017: #7. Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Director: Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
Writer: Miroslav Slaboshpitsky

Ukrainian director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky‘s debut, The Tribe, was one of the best titles out of Cannes 2014 (where it swept up a trio of awards at Critics’ Week), documenting the struggles of a new student at a deaf boarding school as he’s inducted into the troubling social customs among the students (and told without any subtitles). Slaboshpitsky’s since made more headlined with the Ukraine’s most ambitious co-production ever, his sophomore film Luxembourg, which focuses on ‘a group of people living in a permanent nuclear winter in a primitive post-apocalyptic society in the ruins of the old civilization destroyed by atomic war.’ The director is actually filming in the Chernobyl Nuclear Exclusion Zone, which is where he also shot his 2012 short film “Nuclear Waste.” After various funding intiatives since 2015, the project was announced as fully funded in March of 2016.

Cast: Not available.

Production Co./Producer(s): Alpha Violet (Virginia Devesa), Garmata Film Production (Valentyn Vasyanovych), Tandem Communications (Anna Katchko).

U.S. Distributor: Rights available.

Release Date: It’s unclear if Slaboshpitsky has completed the project, but Luxembourg was part of the Venice Production Bridge in September 2016, designed to help microbudget features complete international financing. One would assume Slaboshpitsky would have his sophomore effort ready for a presentation at Cannes, though if the main competition eludes him, either a premiere out of a sidebar (Un Certain Regard or Directors’ Fortnight) or a competition slot in Venice 2017 would be possible.

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