The Island

Source: The Open Reel

‘The Island’

Italian sales agent The Open Reel is bringing a slate of new films to Cannes market, including Damien Manivel’s The Island.

The Island centres on a group of friends and the events that take place in the last party of the summer. It is produced by MLD Films and stars Damoh Ikhetah and Olga Milshtein.

Manivel’s most recent film Magdala world premiered in Cannes’ ACID section last year. Isadora’s Children (2019) won him the best director prize at Locarno.

The Open Reel is also bringing Argentine director Nicolás Herzog’s Elda and the Monsters, a trans-focussed film featuring young musician Elda who aspires to become a glam rock star. Elda faces an ongoing struggle with her shy alter ego Diego, with whom she shares the same body, in her pursuit of fame.

The film was produced by Mostra Cine and its cast includes Diego Detona and Natalia Curcho. Herzog’s previous films include 2020 thriller La sombra del Gallo.

Also on The Open Reel’s slate is Radu Potcoavă Good Guys Go to Heaven, about the afterlife of Dan, following his death in a car crash aged 41. Dan’s post-living journey takes him to a purgatory located on a desert beach, characterised by warm weather and eternally chilled drinks. Here, he soon finds out that he has to face all the mistakes he made during his life.

The Romanian feature is produced by Wearebasca and stars Bogdan Dumitrache, Cosmina Stratan and
Sergiu Costache. Potcoavă has previously directed features including Romanian box office hit The In-Laws

The sales agent’s line-up also includes Dennis Shinners’s Barrio Boy, an erotically-charged odyssey of self-discovery set in Brooklyn starring Denns Garcia, James Physick and Keet Davis.