Reported by our friends at Cineuropa, Arte France Cinéma are getting behind a quartet of new projects – a pair that are on our radar and another two that are news to us. Finally … we got an update on Jérémy Comte‘s directorial debut Paradise, which will go into production in the fall of 2023. The French Canadian filmmaker gave us the masterwork Sundance-winning short Fauve back in 2018. Another feature debut in the works, Mareike Engelhardt‘s Rabia (which we reported on when Megan Northam and Lubna Azabal were cast) will also receive support.
Thierry de Peretti‘s À son image, (which translates to “In His Image”) is loosely adapted from Jérôme Ferrari’s novel of the same name, the story (which was co-written by the filmmaker and Jeanne Aptekman) revolves around several moments in the life of Antonia – a photographer who’s the victim of a road traffic accident in Corsica – and her closest friends. These moments intersect with the most violent events in the island’s political history, spanning the 1980s and the early 21st century. Les Films Velvet are producing. Production is set for Corsica and Bosnia next spring.
Vladimir Perisic’s La honte stars Jasna Djuricic and Jovan Gini. It’s actually co-written alongside Alice Winocour and takes place in 1996 Belgrade. In the heat of events, while the student protests against Milosevic’s regime rage on, 14-year-old Stefan must lead the hardest revolution of them all, all on his own: accepting the unacceptable, realizing that his mother is complicit in the regime’s politics and finding the strength to confront her. Filming is currently taking place in Belgrade until the end of the month. His debut feature Ordinary People was selected for Critics’ Week in 2009.
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
