PRODUCTION / FUNDING France / USA
Kantemir Balagov's Butterfly Jam now in post-production
- Barry Keoghan, Riley Keough and Harry Melling star in the Russian filmmaker’s first English-language movie, steered by Why Not Productions and sold by Goodfellas
Highly acclaimed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2017 and 2019 for his first two feature films, Closeness [+see also:
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film profile] and Beanpole [+see also:
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film profile] (scooping the Best Director Prize both times), young 33-year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov wrapped filming in northern France on his first English-language movie Butterfly Jam back in May, which tells a story about a father and son, brutality and tenderness, and the difficult journey into adulthood.
The cast is toplined by Irish actor Barry Keoghan (nominated for 2023’s Best Supporting Role Oscar via The Banshees of Inisherin [+see also:
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film profile] and recently well-received in Bird [+see also:
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Q&A: Andrea Arnold
film profile] and in the series Daisy Jones and The Six, and soon to be seen in Rosebush Pruning) and English talent Harry Melling (revealed in the Harry Potter saga, at his best in the series The Queen’s Gambit, among other works, and recently seen in Cannes in Pillion [+see also:
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film profile]), who are further joined by Tommy McInnis and Italy’s Monica Bellucci (seen last year in Dear Paris [+see also:
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film profile] and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice).
Written by the director in league with Maria Stepnova, the story follows 15-year-old Pyteh who lives in New Jersey’s Circasssian community where his father and aunt run a restaurant specialising in Circassian cuisine. But their business is struggling. When he’s not helping out in the restaurant, the young man is training to become a professional wrestler. However, when one of his father’s misguided schemes goes sour, Pyteh must face up to the man that his beloved father is, and isn’t, and finds himself contending with a level of brutality which forces him to grow up sooner than he’d like…
Butterfly Jam is being produced by Pascal Caucheteux on behalf of Parisian firm Why Not Productions alongside American outfit AR Content and Goodfellas (with the latter also steering world sales), in co-production with Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo (Hauts-de-France region). Cinematography was entrusted to Jomo Fray (Nickel Boys).
For the record, Why Not Productions have recently put forth Indomptables [+see also:
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interview: Thomas Ngijol
film profile] by Thomas Ngijol (discovered in the Directors’ Fortnight last month and due for release in France on 11 June) and are overseeing post-production on Une affaire by Arnaud Desplechin and Fjord by Romania’s Cristian Mungiu (read our news).
(Translated from French)
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