Rising Hong Kong film-production indie Filmko has boarded romantic drama The Floating Landscape by director Carol Lai (pictured) and producer Stanley Kwan.

The film, the story of a recently bereaved woman who unexpectedly finds new love when on a trip to Qingdao to discover her late boyfriend's roots, has been one of the stars the PPP projects market in Pusan, Korea, where it is presented this week.

Unlike most projects at PPP, which are in search of production finance, the $1.2m (HK$11m) Floating Landscape is potentially fully-financed by Filmko. The PPP trip is now expected to allow Filmco to start pre-sales to foreign distributors.

The film, produced by Kwan's Indies Productions, is also the first Hong Kong picture to receive support from France's Fonds Sud fund, a finance pool reserved for film-makers from developing countries. Hong Kong films have only been eligible for this since 1997 when the territory ceased to be a British protectorate and returned to China.

Lai previously directed Glass Tears, which was presented in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes festival.

Lai said: "I use two different styles of painting to illustrate [the heroine's] moods as she is steeped in grief and finally awakens to find love again. Overall it is lighter in tone than Glass Tears."

Filmko has so far finished four films: Ann Hui's July Rhapsody, which this week won actress Karena Lam the best actress prize at Taiwan's Golden Horse awards, Lo Chi-leung's Inner Senses, Jacob Cheung's Midnight Fly and the same director's Summer I Love You