03/02/2017 - The feature-length fiction debut by Italy’s Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino has been added to the firm’s line-up, which also includes House in the Fields, being showcased in the Forum

Crater by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino

Largely devoted to new talents, the line-up of French international sales agent Alpha Violet at the European Film Market of the 67th Berlin Film Festival (9-19 February 2017) has just had another title added to it: Crater [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino
film profile] by Italian directors Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino. The feature-length fiction debut by the duo, who cut their teeth in the documentary domain, with such titles as The Threat (nominated for the 2008 David di Donatello Award in its respective category) and 2012’s On the Art of War [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], is currently in post-production and will be ready in March. A kind of "back-to-front Disney fairy tale", Crater tells the story of how a father uses his 13-year-old daughter with the sole intention of making money, relentlessly pushing her to sing and train her voice so that she can appear on television. But success becomes an obsession and the girl’s talent a veritable punishment... This story about ambition, oppression and torment was written by the two filmmakers (who also took care of the film’s cinematography, sound and editing) with contributions from Rosario Caroccia, the lead actress in the movie alongside her daughter, Sharon. The production was staged by TFilm with Rai Cinema, with support from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, among other sources. Interestingly, Alpha Violet will be showing off some excerpts of Crater at Berlin.

At the EFM, the team headed by Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato will also be pinning its hopes on a creative documentary set to be world-premiered in the Forum: House in the Fields by Tala Hadid. Produced by Morocco and Qatar, this feature debut explores a remote village in the Atlas Mountains, following the story of some of its inhabitants – in particular two teenage sisters, one of whom has to drop out of school to prepare for her wedding, while the other dreams of becoming a judge.

Three other feature debuts being touted by Alpha Violet will have their market premieres at Berlin: Gukoroku - Traces of Sin by Kei Ishikawa (a murder-mystery produced by Office Kitano, which lifts the veil on the ruthless world of elitism in Japan’s university milieu), Bad Influence by Claudia Huiaquimilla (a Chilean production directed by a young female Mapuche filmmaker, with a plot revolving around two young people forging a friendship in the midst of an ethnic conflict in the south of the country) and The Nobodies by Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Mesa (winner of the Audience Award in the Critics’ Week at Venice – a film centred on a group of anarchistic youngsters in Medellín who are particularly fond of street art).

(Translated from French)