04/03/2016 - Michale Boganim and Romain Cogitore are among the authors of the 12 projects chosen by the La Fondation Gan pour le Cinéma and the Groupe Ouest

On 10 March the second edition of La Sélection will be held in Paris, an annual event launched by the Fondation Gan pour le Cinéma and Groupe Ouest during which 12 feature film projects under development by emerging filmmakers are presented to industry professionals (producers, distributors, sellers, etc.).

The projects selected most notably include Anna's Song, the screenplay for which was written by Michale Boganim (who won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2005 with his documentary Odessa...Odessa! and participated in Critics’ Week at Venice in 2011 and the Toronto Film Festival with his debut feature film Land of Oblivion [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Adrien Walter. The plot centres around Anna, a stage director in Paris, and her daughter Edita, a famous French film actress. The year is 2015 and it’s the first time that Anna has come back to Warsaw in years. In 1981, back when she was a young player and a member of Solidarity, she was imprisoned when the military seized power. To re-connect with her daughter, with whom she has a strained relationship, Anna has written a play about her arrest and incarceration, and offers her daughter the starring role, her. For the first time, they are united, on a stage, in a major encounter with not only the past, but Anna’s ghosts too, which rise to the surface. Faced with her mother’s lies and omissions, Edita starts to investigate, to find the answer to a question that has plagued her since she was a child: who really is her father?

Another project it’s worth keeping a close eye on is ZAD (Zone à défendre) by Romain Cogitore (who made his mark with his debut feature, Nos résistances [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and is currently working on La Grande Muraille), the screenplay for which documents the misfortunes of a policeman on a long-term mission to infiltrate the ranks of a group of environmental activists fighting to save a wooded area from having a dam built into it, who finds romance with a young activist in the village.

La Sélection will also feature Vincent by Aurélia Barbet (acclaimed for her debut feature Passer l'hiver [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) which revolves around a teenager, the son of a farmer, who falls in love with a travelling Belgian dancer and runs away from home to get back to her.

Also worth mentioning is L'Homme à la tête de vache by Carl Lionnet, an astonishing exploration of the fantasy genre through a story rooted in the world in crisis of small farmers.

Also featuring at the event will be Vivants! by Just Philippot, which tells the story of the escape of three young orphans and Louis XX1 by Stéphane Godeliez, which centres around a 14-year-old teenager who suffers from school phobia and is tossed back and forth between his separated parents.

L'Histoire de Louise by Sabrina B. Karine (one of the screenwriters of Agnus Dei [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lou de Laâge
film profile]) and Nathalie Pochat Le Roy is being developed within an entirely different genre, focusing on a 10-year-old girl who lives on a small island where she collects books and stories, but where a terrifying creature also roams, The Shadow, which can only be defeated by the most beautiful of stories.

La Circulaire des gâteaux by Noémie Fansten is a dramatic comedy about a boy in his last year of primary school, with a plot that centres around the European circular banning homemade food from being shared within the community.

The project Momo by Emma Perret and Pascal Dash is about a young 22-year-old man from an inner city housing estate, worshipped by his mother to the detriment of his sisters, who finds himself forced to dress up as a woman to escape a local boss who’s been threatening him.

Last but not least, La Sélection will also feature Le Monde de Pascal by Chantal Richard (who made a name for herself with Lili and the Baobab [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), which broaches the issue of sexual identity, La Traversée by Juliette Soubrier, about a couple of French expats who, whilst trying to drive out of a country in the Middle-East in the throes of revolution, come across an injured rebel leader, and Irremplaçable by Gilles Trinques which centres around a fortysomething farmer facing the bankruptcy of his wife all by himself.

(Translated from French)