Berlin-based sales firm Films Boutique has boarded Jessica Woodworth’s Belgian feature Fortress starring Geraldine Chaplin and Jonas Smulders.
It has released a first-look image of the film, which is in post-production, above.
Fortress shot for six weeks in Sicily in autumn 2021, with filming in black-and-white on Super 16mm film. US-Belgian filmmaker Woodworth wrote the screenplay, adapted from Dino Buzzati’s 1940 novel The Tartar Steppe.
It is about a young soldier, hungry for battle, who embeds himself in an isolated fort where men wait in vain for an enemy to strike. Jan Bijvoet and Sam Louwyck also star.
Woodworth produced the film with Peter Brosens for Belgium’s Bo Films and Krater Films, with co-producers Palosanto Films from Italy, Volya Films from the Netherlands, Beluga Tree from Belgium and Art Fest from Bulgaria.
It is the first time Woodworth has directed solo; each of her five previous features have been co-directed with Brosens.
Films Boutique CEO Jean-Christophe Simon said, “The film is a dystopia but its topics and themes strongly resonate with the world we live in today. The work of Jessica is artistically and visually striking.”
Fortress participated in TorinoFilmLab in 2017, going on to find funding from Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Bulgaria and Armenia.
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