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INDUSTRY France

Nine promising European projects at Ateliers d'Angers

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- The 13th edition of Ateliers d'Angers welcomes nine young directors, their first feature film projects and a great masterclass program

Nine promising European projects at Ateliers d'Angers
Director Neus Ballús

The 13th Ateliers d'Angers is due to begin on the 23 August, initiated by the late Jeanne Moreau along with the Festival Premiers Plans organisers. This year, the residence has selected nine young European filmmakers to help them prepare their first fiction feature film. Until 30 August, residents will benefit from masterclasses provided by experienced directors including the French Robin Campillo and Laurent Bécue-Renard, Italian Leonardo Di Costanzo, Portuguese João Pedro Rodrigues, Swiss Lionel Baier and Norwegian Eskil Vogt.

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Among those selected for 2017 is the Spanish Neus Ballus (noted for The Plague [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
in Berlin in 2013) with the project Staff Only [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Neus Ballús
film profile
]
. The plot centres on a 17-year-old girl who spends the Christmas holidays in Senegal with her brother and father. Tired of planned trips and the ceremonious actions of the hotel employees, as well as her father's behaviour, she opens the door to the staff area and discovers a world that, although previously undiscovered, allows her to develop close and complex relationships.

Italian Filippo Meneghetti hasbeen selected with the project Two of Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Filippo Meneghetti
film profile
]
. The plot is built around two retired people who are deeply in love with one another and who, in the eyes of others, are merely neighbours. But one day, a tragic event occurs leading certain doors to close.

The Lebanese filmmaker Ely Dagher, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2015 for his short film Waves '98, is developing (with French outfit Andolfi) The Sea Ahead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(working title: Harvest) which centres on a young woman of about 20 who returns to her parents in Beirut and tries to reconnect with her environment after time spent abroad and a seemingly bad experience.

French Nicolas Mesdom is working on an adaptation of the novel Balco Atlantico by Jérôme Ferrari - a project developed with Les Films du Poisson - which tells the story of a young man and his brother during the Corsican nationalist movement in the late 80s. 

The French Clarisse Hahn has been selected with her project Guerrilla. The true story of a teenager born in France who is engaged in a Kurdish guerrilla movement and is considered a hero by the diaspora upon his return. Despite his tales of adventure and the way in which the political groups approve of him, another story filled with doubt and bitterness lies beneath the surface.

French Arthur Cahn is working on La Douceur humaine - produced by Méroé Movies, which uses the death of 17-year-old Etienne as a trigger. Two shipwrecks, his father and girlfriend are drawn to each other, trying to rediscover the absence left by Etienne through each other, a scandal for those close to them. 

The plot of Gagarin by the French duo Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh involves a 16-year-old living with his mother in the Parisian suburbs as the main character. The town in which he grew up is about to be demolished. But he’s not yet ready to leave the place of his childhood dreams. 

Finally, the French Alice Douard will be presenting Les Vivants, a romantic and musical comedy project revolving around the meeting of two young women, one of whom promotes independent music groups.

Alongside the Workshops program are screenings of films for which all directors will be making the trip to Angers (except for Swedish Ruben Ostlund, winner of the Palme d'Or for The Square [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile
]
): Robin Campillo's120 battements par minute, Karim Moussaoui's Until the Birds Return [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karim Moussaoui
film profile
]
, Hubert Charuel'sPetit Paysan, Italian Leonardo Di Costanzo 's The Intruder [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
and Spanish Carla Simon's Summer 1993 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
film profile
]
.

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(Translated from French)

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