New Jersey Spread: Lars Knudsen & Ari Aster Board Kantemir Balagov’s “Butterfly Jam”

When life gives you lemons (or the president of your country begins a war with Ukraine) you make …. Butterfly Jam. THR are dropping the news rather late on Friday night, but we have a new working title and more producers are joining the fold in Square Peg’s producers Lars Knudsen and Ari Aster for Kantemir Balagov‘s third feature film. Formerly known as “Monica,” and originally set to shoot back home, the project also saw his producer AR Content’s Alexander Rodnyansky having to make adjustments. He is also working with Andrey Zvyagintsev on his next feature — an English language debut that may film in Los Angeles.

Balagov needs no introduction on this site (we were on-hand for the world preems (see vid) to both of his Un Certain Regard films and we’ve been keeping tabs on the filmmaker with his work on the new HBO Series Last of Us, and his recent trip to Telluride as invited guests (with Kira Kovalenko) of the festival. No timeline was announced for Butterfly Jam, but we imagine that a thorough casting process will take place for an eventual production next year and maybe a 2024 Cannes premiere.

Set in a tight-knit New Jersey community of Kabardian immigrants, this portrays a complicated relationship between a father and son, in which the son imbues his father with qualities he doesn’t actually possess.