18/07/2007

After BFD’s release last week of Laurent Herbiet’s The Colonel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – co-produced by France’s Les Films du Fleuve (the Dardenne brothers’ company) – this week sees another French co-production (Agat Films & Cie) hitting screens: Laurent Achard’s debut feature Demented [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Barneaud
interview: Laurent Achard
film profile] (see Focus), co-produced by Belgian outfit Versus Production.

Demented is on release through Imagine Film Distribution on two screens – a very small-scale release for the critically acclaimed film with a rare beauty that won the Best Directing Award at Locarno last year and France’s Jean Vigo Award.

Alongside Achard’s feature, up against Harry Potter and the other usual summer franchises, are two French titles: Emmanuelle Cau’s Very Well, Thank You [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (dist. Les Films de l’Elysée) and Cinéart release La tête de maman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a sensitive and intelligent debut film from Carine Tardieu, which recently screened at the Brussels European Film Festival.

Cinéart is also bringing to screens Death of a President [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. This mockumentary by British helmer Gabriel Range (see interview) – about the imaginary death of US President George W. Bush and its consequences on the United States – also screened at the recent festival (see article), where it took two awards (see news).

The last European film of the week is a Dutch franchise: Zoop in Zuid-America, directed by Johan Nijenhuis and produced by Filmmore, Independent Films, NL Film Produkties and Warnier Studio Amsterdam.

After Zoop in Afrika (2005) and Zoop in India (2006), this is the third episode of the franchise aimed at young audiences to have done very well in the Netherlands. The films tell of the exotic and absurd adventures of a troop of forest rangers all over the world.

The nine new releases also include Moroccan feature debut Heaven’s Door by brothers Swel & Imad Noury. The 2006 Berlin Panorama entry is being sold internationally by Spanish outfit Latido and distributed in Belgium by CNC.

(Translated from French)