30/06/2011

The debut feature by director David Dusa, who was born in Hungary, has Swedish nationality and has been living in Paris for the past ten years or so, continues its extraordinary career.

Selected at 60 international festivals (including Rotterdam, Tribeca, Hamburg, Sofia, Namur, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Durban, Buenos Aires and soon Melbourne) since it was shown in the ACID line-up at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Flowers of Evil [+see also:
trailer
interview: David Dusa
film profile] will screen in avant-premiere at Paris Cinéma (July 2-13) and in the Variety’s Ten Euro Directors To Watch sidebar at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which opens tomorrow. This is an outstanding achievement for a film which was made on a tiny budget and still has no French distributor or international seller attached.

Dusa, previously acclaimed for his shorts, was finding the search for financing too long and launched into production on Flowers of Evil with a budget he puts at €120,000 at the most. Starring Rachid Youcef and Alice Belaïdi, the film (co-scripted by the director and Mike Sens) centres on a love story involving Paris, Tehran and two rootless individuals: young emancipated dancer Gecko and Iranian exile Anahita.

This melodrama is tainted by history and its spontaneous and unprecedented media coverage on the Internet for the director has included video footage shot in Iran during the elections of 12 June 2009 with the ensuing demonstrations and repression.

Produced by Emily Béziat for Sciapode, Flowers of Evil was backed by Le Fresnoy, La Ferme du Buisson (as part of the Temps d’Images Festival with Arte France) and the Roma Europa Foundation.

Dusa, who will take part on Thursday, July 7 in a round-table organised by Paris Cinéma on the topic: "How far can Internet go in building another society, another cinema?" (a debate whose other speakers include Michel Reilhac of Arte France Cinéma) is now preparing his second feature blending documentary and fiction: The Revolution Won’t Be Tweeted.

(Translated from French)