09/02/2022 - The Panorama-selected We, Students! leads the French sales agent’s line-up, alongside post-production works by Damien Onouri, Veerle Baetens, Julien Guetta and Phuttiphong Aroonpheng

French international sales agent The Party Film Sales (spearheaded by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier) will be leaping into action armed with a pretty impressive and incredibly diverse line-up of twenty or so films when it hits the European Film Market tomorrow (unfolding online from 10 to 17 February as part of the 72nd Berlinale).

The team steered by Clémence Lavigne and Samuel Blanc will notably be selling We, Students! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Rafiki Fariala, which is set to enjoy its world premiere in the Panorama section on 11 February. The documentary follows Nestor, Aaron, Benjamin and Rafiki who are studying economics at the University of Bangui. Negotiating full to bursting classrooms, little jobs which help them get by, and all-pervasive corruption, Rafiki shows us what student life is like in the Central African Republic, a broken society where youngsters still dream of a better future for their country… This movie is produced by Central African firm Makongo Films, France’s Unité and the Congo’s Kiripifilms (owned by Dieudo Hamadi).

Six post-production titles further flesh out the line-up: The Last Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adila Bendimerad, Damien Ou…
interview: Damien Ounouri
film profile] by Damien Onouri, whose film shoot was finally given the go-ahead in Algeria after multiple postponements on account of the pandemic; Morrison by Thailand’s Phuttiphong Aroonpheng (who won Best Film in Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2018 via his first feature Manta Ray [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), which is co-produced by French outfit CG Cinéma; offbeat French comedy Top Dogs [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julien Guetta; When It Melts [+see also:
film review
interview: Veerle Baetens
film profile], which is the first feature directed by Belgian actress Veerle Baetens (read our article); and the documentaries The Wild One by Tessa-Louise Salomé (recounting the extraordinary life of Jack Garfein, which took him from the Carpathian Mountains to Hollywood) and The Lost Souls of Syria [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Stéphane Malterre and Garance Le Caisne (produced by Les Films d’Ici and due to be released in France by Dulac Distribution).

Last but not least, The Party Films Sales are also set to showcase a flurry of 11 films in online market screenings, notably including the documentary A Guide to Love and Fighting Capitalism by Basil Carré-Agostini (due for release in France on 9 March); French-Belgian feature Too Close to the Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Brieuc Carnaille (starring Clément Roussier, Marine Vacth and Diane Rouxel); the animated film My Neighbours’ Neighbours [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Anne-Laure Daffis and Léo Marchand (in cinemas since 2 February); Goodnight Soldier by Hiner Saleem; Summer Frost [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Laetitia Masson; and the documentary Our River…Our Sky by Maysoon Pachachi (France/UK/Germany/Kuwait), all without forgetting the Toronto-screened title To Kill the Beast by Argentine director Agustina San Martin and three titles which graced the Cannes line-up last year: The Sea Ahead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Lebanon’s Ely Dagher and the documentaries Oscar Micheaux - The Super Hero of Black Filmmaking [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Francesco Zippel and Fragments [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by French director Jean-Gabriel Périot.

(Translated from French)