26/08/2008

Selected in competition in 2000 with Our Lady of the Assassins, Barbet Schroeder will once again vie for the Golden Lion with Inju [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news) at the 65th Venice Film Festival (August 27-September 6), which kicks off tomorrow. This thriller set in Japan and starring Benoît Magimel will have a press screening on Thursday and be shown to audiences on Friday.

Schroeder – who turns 67 today – is best known for More (1969), Barfly (in competition at Cannes in 1987) and Reversal of Fortune (nominated for the Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscars in 1991). Inju – the director’s 13th narrative feature – joins a filmography that includes four documentaries, of which Terror’s Advocate [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lauded at Cannes in 2007 and winner of the 2008 Cesar for Best Documentary).

Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd, Vérane Frédiani and Franck Ribière for SBS Films in co-production with La Fabrique de Films and France 2 Cinéma, Inju was made for €11.93m. This included pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.

International sales are being handled by UGC, who will launch the film on French screens on September 3. SBS Films and UGC will continue their collaboration with Schroeder in 2009 when they shoot another thriller, A Very Simple Crime, featuring US actor Adrien Brody and German star Franka Potente.

Besides Inju and L’Autre [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by duo Patrick Mario Bernard - Pierre Trividic (see news), the 2008 Venice Film Festival will screen another majority French production in competition: That Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news) by German director Werner Schroeter. This French/German/Portuguese co-production is piloted by Paulo Branco for Alfama Films, who are also handling international sales.

The feature has a very European cast, including French actors Pascal Greggory, Elsa Zylberstein, Amira Casar, Eric Caravaca, Sami Frey, Bulle Ogier, Nathalie Delon and Jean-François Stévenin, Switzerland’s Bruno Todeschini, Germany’s Pascale Schiller and Portuguese stars Isabel Ruth, Filipe Duarte, Laura Soveral and Nuno Lopes.

Finally, three minority French co-productions will also compete for the Golden Lion. These include Haile Gerima’s Teza [+see also:
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film profile] (Ethiopian/German/French production by Unlimited); Semih Kaplanoglu’s Süt [+see also:
film review
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film profile] (Arizona Films in co-production with Turkey and Germany), which received €75,000 in backing from the National Film Centre (CNC) foreign-language film fund; and Inland by Algerian director Tariq Teguia (co-produced by France’s cine@).

(Translated from French)