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BERLINALE 2018 Market / France

Loco Films boasts Fortuna in the Berlin showcase

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- The French firm will be at the EFM selling the second feature by Swiss director Germinal Roaux, which stars Bruno Ganz and is set to have its world premiere in Generation

Loco Films boasts Fortuna in the Berlin showcase
Fortuna by Germinal Roaux

“It’s a film handled with immense sensitivity and featuring magnificent cinematography, about the very timely subject of immigration in Europe being challenged by human kindness.” For Laurent Danielou, who manages French international sales agent Loco Films, the virtues of Fortuna [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Swiss director Germinal Roaux, which will be world-premiered on 18 February in the Generation 14plus section of the 68th Berlin Film Festival (15-25 February), will not elude the expertise of the buyers in attendance at the European Film Market

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The second feature by the director, after Left Foot Right Foot [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (which won awards at Palm Springs and Namur, and racked up three nominations for the Swiss Film Awards in 2014, scooping the Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography gongs), stars young actress Kidist Siyum, famous Swiss thesp Bruno Ganz (The American FriendDownfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernd Eichinger
interview: Joachim Fest
interview: Oliver Hirschbiegel
film profile
]
, and who will grace screens later this year in The House That Jack Built by Lars von Trier) and France’s Patrick d’Assumçao (nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2014 for Stranger by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile
]
 and on the cinema listings in France from tomorrow onwards in The Apparition [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Giannoli
film profile
]
). Written by the director, the story revolves around 14-year-old Fortuna, a young Ethiopian girl who has had no news of her parents since arriving in Lampedusa, Italy. Together with other refugees, she is given shelter for the winter in a Swiss Catholic hospice at an altitude of over 2,000 metres. While they wait for their fate to be decided by the Swiss authorities, Fortuna meets Kabir, a 26-year-old African refugee, and falls desperately in love. Their relationship develops in secret, until the day Kabir disappears... Production duties on Fortuna were handled by Swiss outfit Vega Films together with Belgium’s Need Productions, and further support was provided by SRG SSRRTS and Proximus.

Four market premieres will also be organised by Loco Films at the EFM, for Of Skin and Men [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Mehdi Ben Attia (slated for a 27 February release in France, courtesy of Epicentre Films), Bingo by Daniel Rezende (the Brazilian candidate for this year’s Oscars) and two Belgian feature debuts: The Faithful Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guérin Van de Vorst
film profile
]
 by Guérin Van De Vorst (starring Vincent Rottiers as a youngster who is released from prison, where he converted to Islam and was radicalised) and Bitter Flowers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Meys
film profile
]
 by Olivier Meys (shot in both China and Paris).

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(Translated from French)

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