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BERLINALE 2018 Market / France

Alpha Violet looks set for a fruitful Berlinale with Dovlatov

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- Alexey German Jr’s film, which will have its world premiere in Berlin’s competition, particularly stands out among the seven titles on the French sales agent’s slate

Alpha Violet looks set for a fruitful Berlinale with Dovlatov
Dovlatov by Alexey German Jr

For the first time in its relatively short existence (after it began operations in 2012), and after having previously boasted several titles in the parallel sections of the major international festivals, Paris-based international sales agent Alpha Violet now has a feature film selected in competition at one of the “Big Three” (Cannes, Berlin, Venice) on its line-up. The gem in question is Dovlatov [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Milan Maric
film profile
]
 by Alexey German Jr, which will be battling it out for the Golden Bear at the 68th Berlin Film Festival (15-25 February 2018), and for which Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato’s team fully intends to close some great deals at the European Film Market.

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Selected three times at Venice (Special Mention for the Lion of the Future in 2003 with The Last Train, in competition in 2005 with Garpastum and in 2008 with Bumazhnyy soldat, which was singled out with the Osella for Best Technical Contribution), the Russian filmmaker is back in competition at Berlin for the second time, following Under Electric Clouds [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (Silver Bear for Best Artistic Contribution in 2015).

Dovlatov, his fifth feature, was produced by Russia’s SAGa films, Metrafilms and First Channel, co-produced by Poland’s Message film and Serbia’s Art & Popcorn, and backed by Eurimages. Starring Serbian actor Milan Maric, Poland’s Helena Sujecka, and Russia’s Danila KozlovskyArtur Beschastny and Anton Shagin, the film (the very first images of which were shown in Work in Progress at the Les Arcs European Film Festival) charts six days in the life of a brilliant, ironic writer who saw far beyond the rigid limits of 1970s Soviet Russia. Sergei Dovlatov fought to preserve his own talent and decency with poet and writer Joseph Brodsky while watching his Soviet artist friends get crushed by the iron-willed state machinery. Interestingly, the cinematography has been entrusted to Poland’s Lukasz Zal (Oscar-nominated in 2015 for Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile
]
).

At Berlin, Alpha Violet will also be screening three films as market premieres: Crater [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino
film profile
]
 by Italian duo Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino (revealed in the Venice Critics’ Week, and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Tokyo Film Festival), Namme [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Georgia’s Zaza Khalvashi (which had its world premiere at Tokyo) and Nina [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juraj Lehotský
film profile
]
 by Slovakia’s Juraj Lehotsky (selected at Karlovy Vary and Toronto). Lastly, Fugue [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile
]
 by Poland’s Agnieszka Smoczynska (Special Jury Award at Sundance in 2016 with her feature debut, The Lure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile
]
), the Mexican-US co-production The Chambermaid by Lila Avilés and the Bulgarian feature debut Irina [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martina Apostolova
film profile
]
 by Nadejda Koseva are all presently in post-production.

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(Translated from French)

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