Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales has boarded sales on director Ognjen Glavonić’s Serbian feature The Load, which was announced this morning in the 2018 Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight line-up.
Set in Serbia in 1999, the political thriller follows a truck driver tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, traversing a terrain scarred by war.
Leon Lučev (Circles) leads the cast. Producers are Non-Aligned Films (Serbia) with co-producers Cinéma Defacto (France), Kinorama (Croatia) and Three Gardens Film (Iran) and with support of the CNC (Aide aux cinemas du monde), Eurimages, Visions Sud Est, the Hubert Bals Fund, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Film Center Serbia and the Doha Film Institute. The project previously won the Best Pitch Award at Connecting Cottbus.
Producer Stefan Ivančić revealed the financing of the project had taken “more than six years” due to the film’s focus on a subject “not popular in Serbia”.
Director Glavonić added that the film is a ”reflection on [his] generation’s relationship towards recent Serbian history”.
“The Load is a true discovery for us,” said Jan Naszewski, CDO of New Europe Film Sales. We feel the central performance by Leon Lučev carries the film in the same way the protagonists of Son Of Saul and The Guilty did.”
New Europe’s line-up also features 2018 Sundance premieres Pity and Loveling, Berlinale Generation selection Gordon & Paddy, as well as Rams director Grimur Hakonarson’s upcoming feature The County, which the company will be selling in the market at Cannes.
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