EXCLUSIVE: Films Boutique has acquired Alex Camilleri’s second feature Zejtune for world sales.
Currently in post-production, Films Boutique is aiming for an autumn premiere for the film.
Set on the island of Malta, Zejtune follows Mar, a woman ready to sell the farmland she has inherited after her estranged mother’s death and leave the island. When she meets 80-year-old folk singer Nenu, she forms an unexpected connection, pulled in by the colourful traditions of the island she’s eager to escape.
Michela Farrugia and Nenu Borg lead the cast of the film, which is produced by Ramin Bahrani, Camilleri and Oliver Mallia. Production companies are Noruz Films from the US, with Malta’s Pellikola and Solari Productions; in co-production with Germany’s One Two Films and ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel.
The film is made in collaboration with Arte, in association with Films Boutique and Nizza Films, with the support of Screen Malta Arts Council, the Doha Film Institute and the Ministry For Gozo.
Zejtune won the Grand Prize at Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab.
It is Maltese-American director Camilleri’s second feature, after Luzzu, which debuted at Sundance in 2021, with Jesmark Scicluna winning the Special Jury Award for acting in the World Cinema Dramatic strand.
The film went on to win prizes at Sofia and Kyiv film festivals, with Camilleri winning the Someone to Watch award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2022.
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