10/05/2019 - Standing out on the French sales agent’s line-up are Oliver Laxe’s Fire Will Come, Patricio Guzmán’s The Cordillera of Dreams and César Diaz’s Our Mothers

French international sales agent Pyramide International (headed up by Eric Lagesse) is packing its bags in readiness for its trip to the Marché du Film at the 72^nd Cannes Film Festival (14-25 May), where it will be showing off its jam-packed slate, which includes two features in the Official Selection, one title in competition in the Critics’ Week, one on the line-up of the ACID programme and a slew of films currently in post-production. 

In particular, Pyramide will be pinning its hopes on Fire Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Óliver Laxe
film profile] by French-Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe, which will be unveiled in Un Certain Regard. The third feature by the filmmaker, following the documentary You All Are Captains [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (FIPRESCI Award in the parallel sections in 2010 after its screening in the Directors’ Fortnight) and Mimosas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Oliver Laxe
film profile] (Grand Prize in the 2016 Cannes Critics’ Week), revolves around Amador Coro, a man who has been sent to jail for having started a fire. When he gets out of prison, nobody is waiting for him. He returns to his hometown, a small village nestled in the mountains of rural Galicia, to live with his mother and their three cows. Life goes by slowly, following the pace set by nature – until one night when a fire starts to lay waste to the region… The feature, which was produced by Spain (Miramemira, Kowalski Films) with France (4 A 4 Productions) and Luxembourg (Tarantula), will be distributed in France by Pyramide from 4 September onwards. 

Pyramide’s sales team, managed by Agathe Mauruc, also has high hopes for the Official Selection documentary The Cordillera of Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Patricio Guzmán, which will be shown as a special screening. Produced by Paris-based outfit Atacama Productions (with France’s Arte France Cinéma and Sampek Productions, as well as Chilean firm Market Chile), the movie is the third instalment in a trilogy that kicked off with Nostalgia for the Light [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (special screening at Cannes in 2010), which was then followed up by The Pearl Button [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at Berlin in 2015). Pyramide will oversee the French theatrical release on 30 October.

Also standing out on the line-up is Our Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cesar Diaz
film profile] by Belgian-Guatemalan director César Diaz, which will be in competition in the Critics’ Week. A production involving Belgium (Need Productions), France (Perspective Films) and Guatemala (Cine Concepcion), this feature debut whisks us away to Guatemala in 2018, as the whole country is immersed in the trial of the soldiers who sparked the civil war. Victim statements come one after another. Ernesto is a young anthropologist working for the Forensic Foundation; his job is to identify the missing. One day, while listening to the account of an old woman, he thinks he has found a lead that might guide him to his father, a guerrilla fighter who went missing during the war… Pyramide will also be directly responsible for the French distribution.

Interestingly, Pyramide is also selling the documentary Kongo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Hadrien La Vapeur and Corto Vaclav, which is on the ACID programme.

At the Marché du Film, Pyramide International will be pre-selling 11 films that are presently in post-production, eight of which are directed by French filmmakers: Scents and Senses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Grégory Magne
film profile] by France’s Grégory Magne, Passion simple [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danielle Arbid
film profile] by Danielle Arbid, Into the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Marion Lainé, Savage State [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by David Perrault, The Dazzled by Sarah Succo (see the article), Camille [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] by Boris Lojkine, The Holly Family [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing and Revenir by Jessica Pallud (see the article – starring Niels Schneider and Adèle Exarchopoulos).

Also standing out among the movies in post-production are You Will Die at 20 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Amjad Abu Alala
film profile] by Sudanese director Amjad Abu Alala (a co-production involving France, Austria, Germany and South Africa), the French production Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Massoud Bakhshi
film profile] by Iran’s Massoud Bakhshi and Made in Bangladesh by Rubayat Hossain.

Lastly, it’s also worth mentioning the documentary I Have Been Waiting for You [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by France’s Stéphanie Pillonca, which focuses on adoption and is currently being shot.

(Translated from French)