22/06/2017 - The upcoming films by Claire Burger, Nicolas Pariser and Kleber Mendonça Filho will also be co-produced by the film arm of the French-German channel

Arte France Cinéma’s (managed by Olivier Père) third selection committee of 2017 has decided to get involved in the co-production and pre-purchasing of four projects. Standing out among them is Lazzaro felice, which will be the third feature by Italy’s Alice Rohrwacher, following Corpo celeste [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
film profile] (unveiled in the 2011 Directors’ Fortnight) and The Wonders [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
interview: Tiziana Soudani
film profile] (Grand Prix at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival), and which the filmmaker will shoot from late July until early October. Through the adventures of Lazzaro, a naïve man born in a farming hamlet that has thoroughly steered clear of the modern world, the director intends to adopt the style of a poetic tale as she studies the profound, major changes that have taken place in Italian society over the last 30 years. Staged by Italian outfit Tempesta, the feature will be co-produced for France by Ad Vitam Production as well as by AMKA Films Productions (Switzerland) and The Match Factory (Germany).

Two sophomore features by young French filmmakers are also receiving backing from Arte France Cinéma. The first is C’est ça l’amour by Claire Burger, who this time is the sole director at the helm after she co-directed Party Girl [+see also:
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interview: Marie Amachoukeli, Claire B…
film profile] (Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014) with Marie Amachoukeli and Samuel Theis. Produced by Dharamsala, the film will begin principal photography in August, toplined by Belgian actor Bouli Lanners, who plays the touching role of a somewhat fanciful man devastated by the departure of his wife; he is quickly overwhelmed looking after his two teenage daughters.

Another movie selected is Alice et le Maire, the second feature by Nicolas Pariser, following The Great Game [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (revealed at Locarno in 2015 and winner of the Louis-Delluc Prize for Best Debut Film the same year). Produced by Bizibi, the film will star Fabrice Luchini and Anaïs Demoustier and will depict the encounter between a young student from the Ecole Normale and a small-town mayor going through a career crisis.

Lastly, Arte France Cinéma will throw its weight behind Bacurau by Brazilian duo Kleber Mendonça Filho (who rose to fame in competition at Rotterdam in 2012 with Neighboring Sounds and was very popular in competition at Cannes last year with Aquarius [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]) and Juliano Dornelles. A political fable that unfolds in the near future, the film, which will be shot from late August until early October and is being co-produced with Brazil by French outfit SBS Productions, will be divided into two parts: it begins by portraying a peaceful community in Brazil’s Sertão before adopting the style of a western to depict how it resists a violent invasion by strange visitors who have decided that it will be their hunting ground. 

As a reminder, Arte France Cinéma is supporting the upcoming movies by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Jia Zhangke, Pawel Pawlikowski, Philippe Faucon, Leos Carax, Mia Hansen-Love, Corneliu Porumboiu, Nadav Lapid, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Samuel Maoz, Cédric Kahn, Mikhaël Hers, Emmanuel Mouret, Gustave Kervern et Benoît Delépine, Christophe Honoré, Serge Bozon, Benoît Jacquot, Jean-Bernard Marlin, Jayro Bustamante, Hafsia Herzi, Dror Moreh, Caroline Poggi - Jonathan Vinel, Florence Miailhe and Michel Ocelot.

(Translated from French)