14/05/2015 - CANNES 2015: The Berlin-based world sales agent is selling titles featuring lovers, lonely hearts and lost souls

Berlin-based world sales agent and production company Picture Tree International is presenting various projects and market premieres at the Cannes Film Festival. French filmmaker Simon Rouby, who already showed his short film Blind Spot in the Cinéfondation, is back on the Croisette with his first feature-length film, Adama [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. In this animated tale, a boy from a West African village sets off on a journey to Europe to find his brother – and suddenly finds himself on the front lines of a continent in the grip of war.

Finnish filmmaker Antti J Jokinen, who directed Finland’s official 2013 Academy Award entry, Purge [+see also:
trailer
film profile], has chosen the aftermath of WWII as the setting for his new drama, The Midwife [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Set against the historical backdrop of the Lapland War in 1944-45, a Finnish midwife falls in love with a Finnish-German Nazi officer, and they risk their lives for this love. Meanwhile, in the biopic Egon Schiele [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about the titular provocative painter, Dieter Berner focuses on his relationship with women. The outstanding artist, who lived in early-20th-century Austria, died of Spanish flu in 1918 before he was even 30 years old. Egon Schiele will be staged as an Austrian-Luxembourgish co-production by Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion and Amour Fou Luxembourg.

Furthermore, Picture Tree International is selling several projects at Cannes that are in post-production. In Mammal [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Rebecca Daly, who presented her first feature, The Other Side of Sleep [+see also:
trailer
interview: Antonia Campbell-Huges
film profile], in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2011, recounts an unorthodox love story between a woman whose teenage son is missing and a homeless youth. The leading role of the lonely woman in Dublin will be played by award-winning actress Rachel Griffiths (Muriel’s Wedding). The production partners in this Irish-Luxembourgish-Dutch co-production are Fastnet Films, Calach Films and Rinkel Film. In Ireland, Mammal will be distributed by Wildcard Distribution, while Cinéart has picked it up for the Benelux.

Another drama that is still in post-production hails from Germany. A Heavy Heart [+see also:
trailer
interview: Thomas Stuber
film profile] by silver Student Academy Award winner Thomas Stuber follows a former boxing champion who tries to reconnect with his daughter when he is diagnosed with a terminal disease. The script is based on a short story by Clemens Meyer, who also wrote the novel As We Were Dreaming [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Andreas Dresen
film profile], which German filmmaker Andreas Dresen adapted for his 2015 Berlinale competition entry of the same name. It is being produced by Departures Film in co-production with Deutschfilm, and Wild Bunch/Senator Film Verleih will release the title in Germany.

Picture Tree International’s slate also includes Mark Noonan’s feature debut, You’re Ugly Too [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mark Noonan
film profile], the Brazilian drama Blue Blood by Lirio Ferreira, the Swiss documentary Electroboy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Marcel Gisler (Rosie [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), as well as the Swiss debut features Pause [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Mathieu Urfer, Chrieg [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Simon Jaquemet
film profile] by Simon Jaquemet and the Austrian-Swiss comedy Therapy for a Vampire [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by David Ruehm (The Escape).