02/02/2024 - The French sales agent’s line-up includes a contender for the Golden Bear with Meryam Joobeur’s Who Do I Belong To, Reas in Forum and Through Rocks and Clouds in Generation

Major festivals come and go and continue to smile on French international sales agency Luxbox (directed by Fiorella Moretti). After Cannes (Légua [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Filipa Reis, João Miller Gu…
film profile] and Creatura [+see also:
film review
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interview: Elena Martín Gimeno
film profile] in Directors’ Fortnight), Locarno (Golden Leopard for Critical Zone [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Venice (Behind the Mountains [+see also:
film review
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interview: Mohamed Ben Attia
film profile] in Orizzonti), Toronto (Toll [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in Centrepiece), San Sebastián (Puan [+see also:
film review
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interview: Benjamín Naishtat and María…
film profile] and Ex-Husbands in competition) and most recently Sundance (with the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and a special acting award for Girls Will Be Girls [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Shuchi Talati), the Luxbox teams is getting ready for its return to the Berlinale, where it made a splash last year with the awarded 20 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
film profile], [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
film profile]000 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
film profile] Species of Bees [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Estíbaliz Urresola
film profile] in competition and The Castle [+see also:
film review
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interview: Martín Benchimol
film profile] in Panorama. This year, three titles from their line-up have been selected in various programmes of the 74th Berlinale (15 to 25 February), which suggests the company will be able to make fruitful deals at the European Film Market.

Standing out among them is Who Do I Belong To [+see also:
film review
interview: Meryam Joobeur
film profile], the debut feature from Canadian-Tunisian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur, well known for her short films, especially Brotherhood (nominated for the 2020 Oscar, winner of a Special Mention in Clermont-Ferrand in 2019, and selected in competition in Sundance that same year). Written by the director, the script centres on Aicha who lives in the isolated north of Tunisia with her husband and youngest son. The family lives in anguish since the departure of eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to war. When Mehdi unexpectedly returns home with a mysterious pregnant wife, a darkness emerges, threatening to consume the entire village. Aicha is caught between her maternal love and her search for the truth… The cast includes Salha Nasraoui, Mohamed Hassine Grayaa, Malek Mechergui, Adam Bessa, Dea Liane, Rayen Mechergui and Chaker Mechergui. Production was overseen by French company Tanit Films with Midi La Nuit (Canada), and Instinct Blue (Tunisia), in co-production with 1888 Films (France), Godolphin Films (Tunisia) and Norway’s Eye Eye Pictures.

Jennyfer Gautier’s sales team at Luxbox will also be presenting in Berlin the Argentine-German-Swiss co-production Reas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lola Arias
film profile] by Lola Arias, screening in the Forum section, a hybrid musical comedy set in a Buenos Aires prison (a Gema Films and Sutor Kolonko production with Mira Films as co-producers) with Martín Benchimol as director of photography.

Finally, Luxbox will also be selling Through Rocks and Clouds (Raíz) by Peru’s Franco García Becerra, which will be presented in the Generation Kplus section. The story centres on Feliciano, an eight-year-old alpaca herder, who is euphoric: Peru has the chance to qualify for the World Cup! But the machinations of a mining company endanger his village and threaten Feliciano’s world and his dreams…

(Translated from Italian)