58 European films to tempt festival directors in 2022

Beyond Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin, Screen turns the spotlight on key titles from France, Benelux, Nordics, Italy, Germany, Spain, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia that are likely to excite festival programmers this year. 

Anti-Squat (Fr)

Dir. Nicolas Silhol

A fan of the socially-conscious work of late US filmmaker Sidney Lumet, French director Silhol explores issues of job precarity and the growing housing crisis, in this drama starring Louise Bourgoin as a single mother who gets a job with a start-up offering temporary housing in empty offices. It is Silhol’s second feature after workplace thriller Corporate, which premiered internationally in Karlovy Vary in 2017. It is lead produced by Kazak Productions, the Paris-based production house behind Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane. Contact: Best Friend Forever

Bones And All (It)

Dir: Luca Guadagnino
Timothée Chalamet and Chloe Sevigny star in this adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’s novel about two outcasts travelling through Ronald Reagan’s America. The script is written by A Bigger Splash and Suspiria co-writer David Kajganich. Lorenzo Mieli produces under the banner of The Apartment. Most Guadagnino’s films have debuted in Venice although his TV drama We Are Who We Are Had been due to preview in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2020 before it was cancelled due to the pandemic. 
Contact: The Apartment

Brother And Sister (Fr)

Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Marlon Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud co-star as estranged siblings who come face-to-face following the death of their parents. Cotillard previously co-starred in Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts which opened Cannes in 2017. Nearly all Desplechin’s films have played in Cannes with his last work Deception debuting in its new Premiere section in 2021.
Contact: Wild Bunch International 

Boy From Heaven (Swe-Fr-Fin-Den-Mor)

Dir. Tarik Saleh
Swedish director Saleh reteams with 2017 Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winner Nile Hilton Incident star Fares Fares for this political thriller revolving around a power struggle in a prestigious religious university in Cairo. The project unites lead producer Kristina Åberg of Atmo Sweden with France’s Arte and Memento as well as Denmark’s Final Cut for Real, Finland’s Bufo and Morocco’s Kasbah. 
Contact: Memento International

Close (Bel)

Dir. Lukas Dhont
Two teenage boys who have always been close distance themselves after their relationship is questioned by schoolmates. When tragedy strikes, one of them is forced to confront why he abandoned his friend. Dhont’s feature debut Girl, about a transgender girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina, won Cannes Camera d’Or as well as the Queer Palm in 2018 and another 20 awards at festivals including London, San Sebastian and Zurich.
Contact: The Match Factory

Corsage (Austria)

Dir: Marie Kreutzer
Vicky Krieps stars as 19th-century Empress Elisabeth of Austria, or Sissi as she was affectionately nicknamed. Kreutzer takes a characteristically bold approach to explore the empress’s modern aspirations and darkest secrets in the later years of her life. Kreutzer’s last film, The Ground Beneath My Feet screened in competition in Berlin in 2019.
Contact: mk2 films

Dodo (Greece-Fr-Bel)

Dir. Panos H. Koutras
Koutras’s fifth feature follows a grand Athens family, clinging onto the vestiges of its former wealth, in the chaotic hours leading up to their daughter’s wedding to a rich heir. Koutras’s last feature Xenia premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2014 and then clinched a raft of awards in Greece’s Hellenic Film Academy Awards the following year.
Contact: Pyramide International 

 

Don Juan (Fr)

Dir. Serge Bozon
Having taken inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson for his last film Mrs. Hyde, Bozon turns to literary figure Don Juan for this musical comedy-drama. Tahar Rahim co-stars opposite Virginie Efira as an actor who finds himself playing the legendary lothario opposite the woman who jilted him. Mrs. Hyde premiered in Locarno in 2017 winning Isabelle Huppert best actress, while 2013 whodunnit Tip Top debuted in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Contact: mk2 films 

Eismayer (Austria)

Dir. David Wagner
Wagner’s feature debut is inspired by the true story of Charles Eismayer, a notoriously tough, secretly gay Austrian Army instructor who fell in love with an openly gay recruit and took the plunge to come out. The project was showcased in Les Arcs’ Work in Progress section in December 2021.
Contact: Golden Girls Filmproduktion 

L’Etabli (Fr)

Dir. Mathias Gokalp
Swann Arlaud, Melanie Thierry, Olivier Gourmet and Denis Podalydès feature in the cast of this drama about a university professor who gets a job in a factory on the eve of 1968 with the aim of sowing the seeds of revolution among its workers. Gokalp’s debut feature The Ordinary People premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2009.
Contact: Karé Productions

The Five Devils (Fr)

Dir. Léa Mysius
Adèle Exarchopoulos stars as the mother of a girl with a hyperacute sense of smell. The sudden re-appearance of the girl’s paternal aunt in their lives unleashes disruptive secrets. Mysius’s first feature Ava premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2017 and won multiple awards on the festival circuit. In the interim, Mysius took writing credits on Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District, Desplechin’s Oh Mercy! and Denis’s Stars At Noon.
Contact: Wild Bunch International, Flavien Eripret

The Flood (Rus, Lithuania)

Dir: Ivan Tverdovsky
Russian director Tverdovsky takes inspiration from Evgeny Zamyatin’s eponymous 1928 novel for his fifth feature about a childless couple who take in an orphaned 17-year-old, setting in motion a deadly chain of jealousy. The work was previously adapted by Igor Minaiev in 1994 for a French-language production starring Isabelle Huppert. This fresh adaptation is a co-production between Russia’s New People Company and Lithuania’s Tremora and features Anna Slyu and Sofia Shidlovskaya in the cast. Tverdovsky’s previous film Conference premiered in Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori in 2020.
Contact: New People Company 

The Great Magic (Fr)

Dir. Noémie Lvovsky
This 1920s musical comedy is loosely adapted from late Italian playwright Eduardo de Filippo’s 1948 work Grand Magic about a couple whose dysfunctional marriage is brought into sharp relief when the wife disappears during a magician’s trick. The cast is led by Denis Podalydès, Judith Chemla and Sergi Lopez with support from Noémie Lvovsky, François Morel, Rebecca Marder and Damien Bonnard. It is Lvovsky’s seventh feature after Tomorrow And Thereafter, which world premiered in Locarno in 2017, and Camille Rewinds which was the closing film of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2012.
Contact: Indie Sales

Gold Drop (Fr)

Dir. Clément Cogitore’s 
Karim Leklou, seen recently in Playground and The Stronghold, stars as a young fraudster who makes a living as a clairvoyant, pretending he can make contact with the dead until one fateful night he is forced to confront the ghosts of his own past. The film is shot against Paris’s vibrant multicultural district of La Goutte d’Or close to Montmartre. It marks Cogitore’s second fiction feature after Afghanistan-set mystery thriller The Wakhan Front, which debuted in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2015. It is produced by Kazak Productions.
Contact: mk2 films

The Happiest Man In The World (North Macedonia)

Dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska
Mitevska made waves on the festival circuit with fifth feature God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya which premiered in competition in the Berlinale in 2019. Her new film is a story of seeking forgiveness revolving around an encounter between a woman and a man who experienced the Siege of Sarajevo from different sides. Sister Labina Mitevska lead produces once again under the banner of Sisters and Brother Mitevski.
Contact: Pyramide International 

Holy Spider (Den-Ger-Swe-Fr)

Dir. Ali Abbasi
Denmark-based Iranian-Swedish director Ali Abbasi takes inspiration from his native Iran for this Jordan-shot thriller based on the true story of a serial killer who killed several women as part of a deranged personal mission. It is Abbasi’s third feature after Shelley which premiered in the Berlinale in 2016 and Border which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2018.
Contact: Wild Bunch International, Flavien Eripret

L’Immensita (It-Fr)

Dir. Emanuele Crialese
Penelope Cruz stars as the matriarch of a family living in Rome in the 1970s at a time when Italian society is undergoing a fundamental shift. It is Crialese’s first feature in more than a decade since Terraferma which won the special jury prize at Venice in 2011, while it is more than two decades since his second film Respiro won the top prize in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2002.
Contact: Pathé International

Little Man Tom (Fr)

Dir. Fabienne Berthaud
After her 2019 Mongolia-set drama A Bigger World, French director Berthaud returns to France for this social drama starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz as a young mother living in a mobile home with her 11-year-old son. Sauvage star Félix Maritaud plays an ex-convict who shatters their fragile equilibrium when he breaks in.
Contact: France tv distribution

La Maternal (Sp)

Dir. Pilar Palomero
Rising Spanish actress Angela Ángela Cervantes (Chavalas) stars alongside non-professionals as a girl who falls pregnant and finds herself living in a centre for teenage mothers. After a rocky start, she learns to live with other girls, herself and figure out her complex relationship with her own mother. Palomero’s debut feature Schoolgirls premiered in the Generation KPlus section of the Berlinale in 2020 and went on to win four Goyas, the Spanish Film Academy awards.
Contact: BTeam Pictures, Inicia Films

Mantícora (Sp)

Dir. Carlos Vermut
Billed as “a story about love and monsters in modern times”, Vermut’s fourth feature stars Nacho Sánchez as a video-game designer grappling with a dark secret who believes he has found salvation when a new woman arrives in his life. Vermut’s second feature Magical Girl won best film and director at San Sebastian in 2015. Bteam and Aquí y Allí co-produce.
Contact: Film Factory info@filmfactory.es

Mascarade (Fr)

Dir. Nicolas Bedos
Bedos may not be an A-list festival competition regular but his last film La Belle Epoque debuted out of competition in Cannes in 2019 to an eight-minute standing ovation and then enjoyed a buzzy international tour. This new French Riviera-set comedy-drama features Pierre Niney, Isabelle Adjani, François Cluzet, Marine Vacth, Emmanuelle Devos and Charles Berling in the cast and would make for a starry red carpet.
Contact: Pathé International

Matria (Sp)

Dir. Álvaro Gago
This first feature from Gago, who was one of Screen’s inaugural Spain Stars of Tomorrow in 2021, is a spin-off of his 2017 short film Matria. The work, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in the short film category in 2018, revolved around a middle-aged woman challenged by an exhausting factory job and a humdrum married life. The feature joins the same character at a younger age.
Contact: New Europe Film Sales

Memory of Water (Fin-Ger-Nor-Est)

Dir. Saara Saarela
Based on the bestselling novel by Finnish writer Emmi Itäranta, this dystopian eco-thriller stars Saga Sarkola as a young woman who becomes the custodian of a secret spring in a world without fresh water. Other cast members include Mimosa Willamo, Pekka Strang, and Lauri Tilkanen. The film is the most ambitious production yet for Finland’s Bufo – with a budget of €3.5 million – and co-producers are Germany’s Pandora, Norway’s Mer Film and Estonia’s Allfilm.
Contact: Bufo 

More Than Ever (Ger)

Dir. Emily Atef
Vicky Krieps plays a French woman who heads to Norway in search of new horizons on being diagnosed with a serious lung condition. The cast also features Gaspard Ulliel in his last role before his tragic death at the age of 37 in a skiing accident in January, as well as Liv Ullmann. Atef’s last film 3 Days In Quiberon debuted in competition at the Berlinale in 2018. In between times, she has also worked on a number of TV dramas including directing two episodes of Killing Eve. 
Contact: The Match Factory 

Mother And Son (Fr)

Dir. Léonor Serraille
Serraille won the Caméra d’Or in 2017 her first film Jeune Femme starring Laetitia Dorsch as a directionless young woman trying to find her way in Paris. The director’s second feature charts the fortunes over 30 years of a woman, played by Annabelle Lengronne, who moves from Africa to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons in the late 1980s.
Contact: mk2 films

Night Of The 12th (Fr)

Dir. Dominik Moll
Moll reunites with Only The Animals cast member Bastien Bouillon for this Grenoble-set drama about a police investigator who becomes obsessed with a case involving a complex female murder victim. Bouli Lanners also features in the cast as his sidekick. Moll co-adapted the screenplay from the non-fiction book ‘A Year At The Station’ by Pauline Guéna. Only The Animals opened Venice’s Giornate degli Autori in 2019 and the director is also a Cannes and Berlinale regular.
Contact: Memento International 

Nika (Rus)

Dir. Vasilisa Kuzmina
Rising Russian director Kuzmina’s debut feature explores the life of real-life child prodigy poet Nika Turbina who died at the age of 27-years-old after she fell from a fifth-floor window. Nika is played by Liza Yankovskaya and her mother by Anna Mikhalkova. The work is lead produced by buzzy production company Vodorod which was behind last year’s sci-fi drama Sputnik and is known for uncovering new talent. The film was presented in the Work in Progress section of Les Arcs in December.
Contact: Vodorod Film Company 

One Fine Morning (Fr)

Dir. Mia Hansen-Løve
After her English-language debut Bergman Island, which world premiered in competition in Cannes in 2021, Hansen-Løve returns to the French language for her eighth feature. Léa Seydoux stars as a single mother juggling an affair with an old friend, care of her eight-year-old daughter and looking for a suitable home for her father who is suffering from a neurodegenerative disease.
Contact: Les Films du Losange

Opponent (Swe-Nor)

Dir. Milad Alami
Alami’s second feature, after 2018’s The Charmer, recently won the TitraFilm Award at Les Arcs’ Works in Progress presentations. The story is about a man who is forced to flee Iran because of rumours about him, who tries to settle his family in northern Sweden. He joins the local wrestling club against his wife’s wishes. Producer Annika Rogell of Tangy has credits including festival hits Aniara and My Skinny Sister.
Contact: Tangy 

The Origin Of Evil (Fr)

Dir. Sebastien Marnier
Laure Calamy stars as a factory worker who discovers her biological father is a wealthy businessman. She invents a fictitious wealthy background in a bid to be accepted by him and his toxic female entourage but the lies soon spiral out of control. The buzzy, mainly female cast also features Suzanne Clement, Dominique Blanc, Doria Tillier as well as Jacques Weber. It is Marnier’s third feature after high school-set psychological thriller School’s Out, which premiered in Venice in 2018, and stalking drama Faultless.
Contact: Charades

Other People’s Children (Fr)

Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
French filmmaker Zlotowski’s fifth feature stars Cannes regular Virginie Efira as a childless, 40-year-old woman who forms a strong bond with her new partner’s four-year-old daughter in a tale exploring longing and belonging. It marks a return to cinema for Zlotowski after directing high-end political drama Les Sauvages for Canal Plus. Her last feature An Easy Girl debuted in Directors’ Fortnight in 2019, winning its unofficial top prize.
Contact: Wild Bunch International Flavien Eripret

Pamfir (Ukr-Fr-Pol-Chile)

Dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk is regarded as one of Ukraine’s most promising up and coming directors on the back of short and medium-length works such as Intersection and Weightlifter. This debut feature has been developed with the support of the TorinoFilmLab as well as Cannes Cinéfondation. It revolves around an impoverished labourer who decides to boost his earnings by undertaking a one-off bootlegging job which puts him the crosshairs of a ruthless crime gang.
Contact: Bosonfilm 

The Peasants (Pol)

Dir: Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welshman
Kobiela and Welshman’s new animation promises to be as beautiful as their 2017 Oscar-nominated Vincent Van Gogh biopic Loving Vincent. Adapted from the novel by Nobel Prize-winning Polish writer Wladyslaw Reymont, it is a tragic-romantic tale about a beautiful peasant woman who is married to an older man but in love with his son. Using the same painstaking technique as Loving Vincent, it will consist of over 80,000 hand-painted images.
Contact: New Europe Film Sales

Petite Fleur (Fr)

Dir. Santiago Mitre
Argentine director Mitre makes his French-language debut with this black comedy starring Sergi López and Melvil Poupaud as neighbours caught in an absurd loop in which one of them kills the other on a daily basis, only for the victim to come back to life again in time for it to play out again the next day. Mitre’s third film Paulina won the grand prize in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2015 while his fourth film The Summit premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2017. The director is also finishing off political thriller Argentina, 1985.
Contact: Playtime

Princess (It)

Dir. Roberto De Paolis
Italian director De Paolis’ debut feature Pure Hearts was a hit at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2017. His second feature explores the issue of street prostitution in Italy through the story of a young Nigerian woman making her living in this way. De Paolis wrote the screenplay and is producing under the banner of this company Young Films with the support of Rai Cinema. The cast features Lino Musella (Bad Tales) and Maurizio Lombardi (1992).
Contact: Young Films carla@youngfilms.eu

Rascals (Fr)

Dir. Jimmy Laporal-Trésor
Billed as a coming-of-age tale bringing together elements of This Is England and La Haine, this 1980s-set first feature follows a gang of ethnic minority youngsters called The Rascals, who take on an ultra-violent gang of right-wing skinheads, losing their innocence in the process. Laporal-Trésor’s short film Black Soldier played in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021.
Contact: Wild Bunch International Flavien Eripret

Le Paradis (Bel)

Dir. Zeno Graton
Two young men embark on an illicit love affair in a youth detention centre. It is Belgian director Graton’s first feature after his well-received short Jay Amongst Men. Graton began development of the film under the auspices of the Cannes Cinefondation Résidence programme. Valérie Bournonville and Joseph Rouschop at Tarantula’s Belgian branch lead produce. Tarantula in Belgium lead produces.
Contact: Tarantula Belgium 

Rebel (Bel-Fr)

Dir: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
After the worldwide success of ad Boys For Life -  the third instalment of the Bad Boys franchise starring Will Smith - Moroccan-born, Belgian directing duo El Arbi and Fallah have returned home to make this personal family drama about a Moroccan teenager growing up in a tough Brussels neighbourhood and looking for an anchor following the death of his father. The duo’s second film Black played in Toronto in 2015 winning the Discovery Award. 
Contact: Wild Bunch International Flavien Eripret

Rheingold (Ger-It)

Dir. Fatih Akin
Actor-musician Emilio Sakraya, known to Netflix subscribers from his roles in the Warrior Nun and Tribes of Europa series, has been cast by Akin as the German hiphop rapper Xatar in a gangster biopic charting his life from the depths of the ghetto to the top of music charts at locations as far Germany. The Netherlands, Morocco and Mexico. Akin’s last film The Golden Glove played in competition in Berlin in 2019 and prior to that In The Fade debuted as a Palme d’Or contender in Cannes in 2017.
Contact: The Match Factory 

R.M.N. (Rom, Fr)

Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Mungiu describes his first film in five years as “a profound plea for tolerance”. Set in the central Romanian region of Transylvania, it revolves around a man who returns to his village for Christmas after time spent working abroad to discover an atmosphere of irrational fear and prejudice that boils over when the local bakery hires two foreign workers. It is 20 years since Mungiu’s first feature Occident debuted in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, with the director then heading to Official Selection with Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days in 2007, best screenplay winner Beyond The Hills in 2012 and Graduation for which he won best director in 2016.
Contact: Wild Bunch International Flavien Eripret

Rodeo (Fr)

Dir. Lola Quivoron
This first fiction feature follows a tough young woman as she tries to gain acceptance in the male-dominated dirt bike scene in and around the city of Bordeaux. Featuring a mainly amateur young cast and promising an action-packed, stunt-filled ride, the work builds on Quivoron’s 2016 short film Au loin, Baltimore which debuted at Locarno in 2016.
Contact: Les Films du Losange

Saturn Bowling (Fr)

Dir. Patricia Mazuy
Veteran French director Mazuy’s fifth feature revolves around a police officer who inherits his family’s bowling alley and decides to give it to his half-brother. This act sets off a series of murders and both brothers are drawn into a murky world and a fight for survival. Mazuy made her Cannes in Un Certain Regard in 1989 with Thick Skinned and returned to the same section with The King’s Daughters in 2000.
Contact: Totem Films

Scarlet (Fr-It)

Dir. Pietro Marcello
Italian director Marcello makes his French-language debut with this fantasy period drama about a girl growing up with her widower father in Normandy between the two world wars in a time of great technological and social innovation. Newcomer Juliette Jouan stars with other cast members including Louis Garrel and Noémie Lvovsky. Marcello’s last fiction feature Eden Martin premiered in competition in Venice in 2019, winning Luca Marinelli best actor.
Contact: Orange Studios

Saint-Omer (Fr)

Dir. Alice Diop
French filmmaker Diop won the Berlinale’s documentary award for We last year. Bringing in a documentary element, her debut fiction feature is inspired by the true story of a woman accused of deliberately abandoning her 15-month child on a beach in Northern France as the tide rose. The feature revolves around a pregnant novelist who attends the trial, planning to use the case as source material for a contemporary re-telling of the Greek myth of Medea. As the trial proceeds, she finds herself questioning her own feelings about motherhood.
Contact: Wild Bunch International Flavien Eripret

Seneca (Ger)

Dir. Robert Schwentke
John Malkovich heads up an international cast also featuring Geraldine Chaplin and Julian Sands in this black comedy set in 65 AD during the final days of the Roman philosopher Seneca as he becomes a victim of Emperor Nero’s moves to defend his despotic claim of sovereignty at any cost. Schwentke’s last film The Captain debuted in Toronto in 2017 as a special presentation and went to win a slew of awards on the festival circuit worldwide.
Contact: Filmgalerie 451

Silver Haze (Neth)

Dir. Sacha Polak
This Dutch-UK coproduction was shot under the radar in London over the summer with financing from the Netherlands Film Fund and BBC Films. This sequel to Polak’s Dirty God, which opened IFFR and screened in Sundance in 2019, is inspired by events in the life of Vicky Knight, who stars alongside Esme Creed-Miles. The lead producer is Marleen Slot of Amsterdam-based Viking Film working alongside London-based Emu Films’ Mike Elliott. Knight plays a young woman who suspects her mother’s best friend of setting fire to the pub she was sleeping in as a child.
Contact: Viking Film

Skunk (Bel)

Dir: Koen Mortier
Adapted from a novel by Geert Taghon, Mortier’s fourth feature revolves around a teenager brought up by a neglectful drug-addicted parents who commits an act of violence to break with this past. Mortier’s last film Angel premiered in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section in 2018. It is produced by Eurydice Gysel, Mortier’s partner at Czar Film & TV, and has Frank Hoeve (Baldr Film) and Jean-Yves Roubin (Frakas) as co-producers.
Contact: Czar Film 

Stars At Noon (Fr-Br)

Dir. Claire Denis
Denis’s English-language, Nicaragua-set thriller could be the French director’s second feature on the festival circuit this year after Fire debuts in competition in the Berlinale. Joe Alwyn and Margaret Qualley co-star as an undercover oil company exec and a struggling reporter who embark on a passionate affair against the dangerous backdrop of Nicaragua’s 1980s civil war.
Contact: Wild Bunch International Flavien Eripret

Tori And Lokita (Bel)

Dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
The fraternal directing duo continues their tradition of exploring issues impacting contemporary society through its youth with this tale of a young boy and a teenage girl whose invincible friendship helps them face the trial of living in exile. The brothers were last in Cannes with Young Ahmed in 2019, for which they won best director, having previously clinched the Palme d’Or for Rosetta and The Child in 1999 and 2005 respectively.
Contact: Wild Bunch International, Flavien Eripret

Triangle Of Sadness (Swe)

Dir. Ruben Östlund
Following his Palme d’Or win for The Square in 2017, all eyes are on Swedish filmmaker Östlund’s English-language debut. The dark comedy follows a model couple on a yacht with the super-rich, but the group dynamics shift when they are marooned on a deserted island. The cast includes Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean. The film’s shoot did have some Covid‑19 challenges and delays, and Ostlund decided not to rush for Cannes 2021 but instead the film is now expected to premiere in Cannes Competition 2022.
Contact: Coproduction Office

War Sailor (Nor-Ger)

Dir. Gunnar Vikene 
Inspired by real events, this historical drama follows Norwegian two merchant sailors fighting to survive in the middle of the Atlantic during World War Two who hear of a disaster back home and wonder if they will have anything to return to when the conflict ends. The cast features Kristoffer Joner (The Wave), Pal Sverre Hagen (Kon-Tiki) and Ina Marie Wilmann (Sonia: The White Swan). Maria Ekherhovd’s Mer Film (The Innocents) leads the production, which also has German backers including Rohfilm and Studio Hamburg. The film could be ready in time for the late summer, autumn festivals.
Contact: Beta Cinema 

The Water (Sp-Fr)

Dir. Elena Lopez Riera
Riera was one of Screen’s inaugural Spain Stars of Tomorrow in 2021. Her debut feature is set in a village dominated by a legend that suggests women are predestined to disappear with each flood.  Barbara Lennie (Magical Girl) and Nieve de Medina (Mondays In The Sun) feature in the cast mixing professional actors and amateurs. It follows shorts Pueblo which was selected for Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2015, Those Who Desire, which won Locarno’s Golden Leopard in 2018.
Contact: SUICAfims 

When It Melts (Bel-Neth)

Dir. Veerle Baetens
A young woman returns to her home village seeking revenge against those who tormented her during her adolescence. It marks the feature directorial debut of actress Baetens, who is best known internationally for role in Oscar-nominated Belgian drama Broken Circle Breakdown. The film is produced by Bart Van Langendonck’s Savage Films, also behind Oscar nominee Bullhead. Coproduction partners include Dutch outfit PRPL and Belgian company, Versus.
Contact: The Party Film Sales

Wild Urge (Slovenia)

Dir. Sharon Bar-Ziv
Israeli writer-director Bar-Ziv’s first English-language feature is a date rape drama based on true events. Germany’s Samuel Finzi stars as a successful lawyer accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a young woman, played by Slovenian actress Nina Rakovec. Israeli actress Yaara Pelzig plays a police investigator overseeing the case while dealing with her own demons. It is lead produced by Slovenian company Perfo Production. Bar-Ziv’s first feature Room 514 received a special mention in Tribeca in 2012.
Contact: Perfo Production 

The Wall (Bel)

Dir. Philippe Van Leeuw
Having explored life under siege in Damascus in his Beirut-shot 2017 drama Insyriated, Belgian director Van Leeuw’s third feature is set along the US-Mexican border. Vicky Krieps plays a US border patrol agent determined to combat drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Her convictions around her job come under pressure after kills an immigrant in front of an old man and his grandson hailing from the Native American community.
Contact: Altitude 100 Production

Woland (Russia)

Dir. Michael Lockshin
Russian director Lockshin broke out at home and internationally with Netflix-acquired St Petersburg-set period romance Silver Skates. Billed as a fantasy drama, his second feature is an adaptation of Mikhail. Bulgakov’s classic Russian novel Master And Margarita. Evgeniy Tsyganovstars stars as a Soviet writer who finds his career waning after he finds himself caught up in a scandal. Germany’s August Diehl (Inglorious Basterds) also features in the cast. Tycoon Len Blatatnik is one of the producers on the project which is produced through Mars Media.
Contact: Mars Media

The Woodcutter Story (Fin) 

Dir. Mikko Myllylahti
Myllylahti, co-writer of 2016 Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day In The LIfe Of Olli Mäki, makes his anticipated feature directorial debut. Set in a small town in Northern Finland, the story follows a series of dreadful events that impact a kind woodcutter, putting his goodwill to the test. The film was developed as part of Cinefondation and TorinoFilmLab. Producers Aamu have a strong track record on the Croisette, most recently with 2021’s Compartment No. 6. Myllylahti was selected for Cannes Critics’ Week in 2018 with short film Tiikeri and went on to participate in its Next Step first feature development programme with this film, winning its top prize in 2019.
Contact: Emilia Haukka, Aamu Film Company  

You Will Not Have My Hate (Ger-Fr-Bel)

Dir. Kilian Riedhof
Award-winning German TV director Reidhof tackles Frenchman Antoine Leiris’ autobiographical 2016 memoir about how he and his young son coped in the days and weeks following the death of his wife Hélène who was among 90 people who Bataclan Theatre in Paris when it was targeted in a wave of brutal terror attacks on November 13, 2015. It co-stars Pierre Deladonchamps (A Kid) and Camélia Jordana (Le Brio). It is produced by Komplizen Film in co-production with Haut et Court Frakas Productions, NDR/Arte, MMC Movies Köln, Erfttal Film, Tobis Filmproduktion.
Contact: Beta Cinema

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