email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

CANNES 2017 Market / France

SBS International gears up to head to the Croisette

by 

- The company’s slate includes the upcoming films by Paul Verhoeven and Kleber Mendonça Filho, plus Lover for a Day by Philippe Garrel

SBS International gears up to head to the Croisette
A promo image for Blessed Virgin by Paul Verhoeven

The Film Market of the 70th Cannes Film Festival (17-28 May) is looking extremely promising for the international sales team at SBS, managed by Saïd Ben Saïd. The Paris-based company will be selling its own production Lover for a Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Philippe Garrel, which will have its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight (and which SBS will distribute in France from 31 May), and will kick off pre-sales for the new projects by two directors who took part in the Cannes competition last year: Dutch director Paul Verhoeven and Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

After Elle [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, SBS is partnering up with Verhoeven once again for a new French-language film called Blessed Virgin. It will be toplined by Belgium’s Virginie Efira (nominated this year for the César Award for Best Actress, and victorious in the same category at the Magrittes for In Bed with Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile
]
, popular recently in Not on My Watch [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, and who previously acted for Verhoeven in Elle). The story is an adaptation by Gerard Soeteman (who already worked with the filmmaker on such movies as Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, Flesh and Blood and Black Book [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) of the novel Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C Brown; it revolves around a 17th-century nun who suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assigned a female companion who is to help her, and a romantic relationship blossoms between the two women. The tale is based on the misadventures of Sister Benedetta Carlini, whose visions initially worked in her favour and accelerated her appointment as abbess of the Italian convent of Pescia. But then her claims of having supernatural contact with Christ triggered an enquiry from the leaders of the Church, who discovered that the reality of the situation was totally different... Blessed Virgin will be produced by Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt for SBS Productions.

At Cannes, SBS will also be launching pre-sales for Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. The main character in the film, which will be the former’s third feature, after Neighbouring Sounds and Aquarius [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, is a filmmaker who decides to travel to a village in inland Brazil in order to make a documentary. But as the days go by, he starts to realise that the inhabitants are not quite what they seem and that they harbour dangerous secrets.

Also standing out on the firm’s slate are Paul Sanchez Is Back [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by French director Patricia Mazuy and Micro Robert by Israel’s Nadav Lapid (in pre-production).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy