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CANNES 2018 Markets

Fugue at the forefront of Alpha Violet’s Cannes line-up

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- Cannes will see the French firm sell the second full-length film by Polish director, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, competing this year in Critics’ Week

Fugue at the forefront of Alpha Violet’s Cannes line-up
Fugue by Agnieszka Smoczyńska

Things are looking good for Paris-based, international sales company Alpha Violet at Critics’ Week this year. Once again, at the Film Market of the 71st Cannes Film Festival (running from 8 to 19 May), they can count on the sale of a film that has been selected to compete in this section of the competition. Fugue [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile
]
by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska is, in fact, the 4th full-length feature in Alpha Violet’s repertoire to have its world premiere in the Espace Miramar venue, following in the footsteps of Here and There [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Hernández
film profile
]
in 2012, The Tribe [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in 2014 and A Yellow Bird [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in 2016.

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"We bought Fugue on the basis of the script "explains Virginie Devesa who heads up Alpha Violet alongside Keiko Funato. "Keiko met the director and the producer in Sofia and had already been blown away by The Lure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile
]
, Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s first full-length film which won the special prize at the 2016 Sundance Festival. Ultimately, Fugue is a film that examines the condition of women, their independence. As a starting point, the director observed that the female condition is often reduced to women being able to have children. Do they have a choice? Can they escape from this role that is so readily assigned to them?"

Written by Gabriela Muskała (who is also part of the film-cast, alongside Łukasz Simlat, Małgorzata Buczkowska, Piotr Skiba, Halina Rasiakówna and Zbigniew Waleryś to name a few), Fugue follows Alicja who has lost her memory and has no idea how she ended up where she is today. Over the course of two years, she manages to rebuild her life: she is changed, independent and far from home. She has no desire to remember the past. But when her family finally find her, she is obliged to take on the role of mother, daughter and wife, surrounded by people who are complete strangers to her. What are we left with when we forget that we love someone? Do we really need to remember what it feels like to be in love in order to be happy?

Produced by Agnieszka Kurzydło for Polish company MD4 with the Czech contingent at Axman Production (Karla Stojáková) and the Swedes at Common Ground Pictures (Jonas Kellagher), Fugue was co-produced by the Mazovia Warsaw Film Fund (Anna Spisz), Odra-Film and Film I Väst.

Back on the Croisette, at the Marché du Film (and off of the back of some good deals negotiated in Berlin over Dovlatov [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Milan Maric
film profile
]
), Alpha Violet is also banking on the sale of two films in post-production: the first full-length Bulgarian film, Irina [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martina Apostolova
film profile
]
 by Nadejda Koseva (who won an award at the Sundance Festival for one of her short films) and the Mexican-American co-production The Chambermaid (La camarista) by Lila Avilés.

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(Translated from French)

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