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BERLINALE 2019 EFM

Film Europe tops up its catalogue with Berlinale titles

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- BERLIN 2019: The new arrivals will be introduced at the company’s very own Be2Can festival in Slovakia and the Czech Republic

Film Europe tops up its catalogue with Berlinale titles
System Crasher by Nora Fingscheidt

Film Europe Media Company indulged in its usual shopping spree at the recent 69th edition of the Berlinale. The company was scouting possible acquisitions for a Slovak and Czech theatrical release, as well as for its very own Be2Can festival, which rounds up intriguing international titles from the "Big Three", Berlinale, Cannes and Venice. “Neither the Berlinale nor Be2Can is a mainstream festival,” says Film Europe CEO Ivan Hronec. “The Slovak and Czech audiences have an opportunity to reflect on the meaning and state of film from around the world as well as on the qualities of Slovak and Czech cinema at Be2Can.”

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The latest arrivals in Film Europe’s catalogue include several main competition titles, such as the double Silver Bear-winning Chinese drama So Long, My Son by Wang Xaioshuai, “a typical festival shocker”, according to Hronec; Fatih Akin’s drama-thriller The Golden Glove [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatih Akin
interview: Jonas Dassler
film profile
]
Denis Côté’s “art horror” Ghost Town Anthology; and Nora Fingscheidt’s drama System Crasher [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nora Fingscheidt
film profile
]
. Before the autumn, when Be2Can will unspool in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the new acquisitions will be introduced at Be2Can Starter, an individual section of the Slovakian Art Film Fest Košice, alongside the Panorama film All My Loving [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Edward Berger.

Besides main competition titles, Film Europe also procured other movies at Berlin: Marcus H Rosenmüller’s Trautmann [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marcus H Rosenmüller
film profile
]
Isabel Coixet’s The Bookshop [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 and Nikolaus Leytner’s The Tobacconist [+see also:
trailer
interview: Emma Drogunova
film profile
]
, starring the late Bruno Ganz. Since 2015, the company has been extending its outreach and enriching its catalogue, and it managed to buy two titles that were unveiled at Sundance 2019. May el-Toukhy’s Queen of Hearts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gustav Lindh
interview: May el-Toukhy
film profile
]
 was acquired based on the script because it had “all the right ingredients for a good Scandi film”, says the Film Europe CEO, adding that he bought it as the opening film for another company’s showcase of Scandinavian cinema, Scandi 2020. The latest effort by Polish director Jacek BorcuchDolce Fine Giornata [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacek Borcuch
film profile
]
, has also found its way into Film Europe’s inventory, much like one of Borcuch’s previous films, All That I Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. “If we have an outstanding director, we build up a library of his or her works,” reveals Hronec.

Given that Film Europe is known for its appetite for award-winning titles, Cineuropa asked Hronec about the Golden Bear laureate, Synonyms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nadav Lapid
film profile
]
 by Nadav Lapid. “It’s one of the most powerful films from the Berlinale. However, it is being sold by its producer, and the negotiations are tough. I am working on it, and I hope I will succeed,” he concludes.

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