China’s Parallax Films has boarded Liu Yaonan’s first feature The Great Phuket, which is set to premiere at the Berlinale in the Generation 14plus sidebar.
The Beijing-based company will handle sales for Asia, excluding China, with Paris-based sales firm MPM Premium managing the rest of the world.
The drama follows a 14-year-old boy who lives in the Great Phuket district in South China, which is a setting of ruins and reconstruction. He clashes with his mother, who refuses to leave the family home despite plans for its demolition and finds nothing but trouble at school. In a bid to escape his teenage life, he discovers an underground shelter where strange things begin to happen.
The film is a Hong Kong, France, Germany and Belgium co-production. Producers include Cyriac Auriol of France’s Remora Films, Shan Zuolong of Hong Kong’s Monologue Films, Dries Phlypo of Belgium’s A Private View and Caroline Henkel of Germany’s Wood Water Films.
The debut film is in the running for the GWFF best first feature award at the Berlinale, which is set to run from February 15-25.
Also on Parallax Films’ slate at the European Film Market (EMF) are Lin Yihan’s short Sojourn To Shangri-La, which will have its international premiere in the Berlinale Shorts Competition, and Japanese director Shiika Okada’s live-action feature debut Kisspeptin Chronicles.
The latter film is described as “a humorous and at times affecting chronicle” of an artistic girl’s life from childhood through adulthood. It is produced by Pia Film Festival and marks Parallax Films’ second collaboration with this Japanese film festival, following Remembering Every Night, which had its international premiere at the Berlinale in Forum last year.
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