Paris-based Urban Sales has acquired If Only I Could Hibernate, the debut feature from Mongolian director Zoljargal (Zoro) Purevdash that will world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
If Only I Could Hibernate is the first Mongolian film to play in Official Selection at Cannes. It is a co-production between Purevdash’s Mongolian production house Amygdala Films and Paris-based Urban Factory, headed by producers Frédéric Corvez and Maeva Savinien.
Amel Lacombe’s Eurozoom signed a deal for French distribution ahead of the film’s selection for Cannes.
Set in Ulaanbaatar, the film follows a 15-year-old from a poor neighborhood who is determined to win a science competition to earn a scholarship. When his illiterate mother finds a job in the countryside, she leaves him and his younger siblings to face a harsh winter alone and he needs to find a job to look after them all.
Purevdash said of her film: “We don’t breathe air pollution. We breathe poverty. Facing and accepting this bitter reality is the primary step to reaching the solution. Through the survival story of a teenage boy, through his pure hope for a better future, I am suggesting the solution, an equal chance to get a good education for every kid.”
Producer Corvez, also CEO at Urban Sales, first met the director over five years ago at FILMeX in Tokyo before coming on as co-producer. Corvez said that ever since, “she has been working incessantly on her debut feature.”
Urban Sales’ market slate at Cannes will also include Faouzi Bensaïdi’s French-Moroccan comedy drama Deserts, Ukrainian drama Do You Love Me? presented at the Berlinale Panorama, Guillaume Gouix’s road movie Amore Mio, Hicham Ayouch’s Moroccan comedy Abdelinho and upcoming animated features including Marine Blin’s The Hermit and the Bear, Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord’s Into the Wonderwoods and Mascha Halberstad’s Fox & Hare Save the Forest.
No comments yet