20/08/2025 - The French sales agent is selling Vladlena Sandu’s feature debut, which will be unveiled as the opening film of the Giornate degli Autori

Memory by Vladlena Sandu

Boasting a great eye for new talents, and on a roll after the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it inked deals for The Luminous Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Rosas
film profile] by Portugal’s João Rosas and The Anatomy of the Horses [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Peru’s Daniel Vidal Toche (popular in the international competition and in the Proxima section, respectively), French international sales agent Loco Films (headed up by Laurent Danielou) will be rocking up at the 82nd Venice Film Festival (27 August-6 September) with another feature debut on its line-up: Memory [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Vladlena Sandu. The movie will be world-premiered as the opening film (in competition) of the 22nd Giornate degli Autori.  

Born in Crimea to a Chechen mother, the Amsterdam-based filmmaker has previously turned heads with her short film Holy God and with the series Identification. Interestingly, she is also among the cast of Memory (alongside Amina Taisumova and Selima Agamirzaeva), and she took care of editing the movie, for which she also wrote the screenplay.

The story is autobiographical. After her parents’ divorce, six-year-old Vladlena moves from Crimea to Grozny, not yet aware of the changes that lie ahead. When war breaks out in Chechnya, it deeply affects her city and family.

According to Danielou, “The film portrays the final days of the USSR and Putin’s first wars – dramas that continue to this day. But beyond its geopolitical dimension, it’s primarily a highly personal, poetic, sensory work, and an incredible cinematic experience. Indeed, the director has reconstructed her entire childhood through a really groundbreaking narrative, exploring the influence of cycles of violence on children, as well as the potential for healing and change.”

Memory was produced by Yanna Buryak and Ludovic Henry for French outfit Limitless, and co-produced by Raymond Van Der Kaaij and Kirsi Saivosalmi for Dutch firm Revolver Amsterdam, with support from the CNC via World Cinema Support.

As a reminder, Loco Films’ line-up also includes The Man Who Saw the Bear [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre Richard (presented as a Special Screening at Cannes – set to be released in France on 17 September) and Tiger’s Pond by India’s Natesh Hegde (unveiled last February in the Berlinale Forum).

(Translated from French)