04/10/2005

Headed by Pablo Mehler and Guillaume Benski, the young French company Divine Productions, created two years ago, has made a noticeable debut within the French and European professional circles. Launched with the financial co-production of 20 centimètres from Spaniard Ramon Salazar which comes out on the 12th October in French cinemas, Divine Productions contributes around 20 % to Spanish-British-French The Backwoods (Bosque de sombras), first feature from the promising Koldo Serra (Melies for best short European fantasy film in 2003 with El tren de la bruja). Bringing together a sumptuous cast of British Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine, French woman Virginie Ledoyen and Spanish-\italian Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, the thriller follows the misadventures of a young married couple (Ledoyen and Considine) who, at the end of the ‘70s, visit a friend (Oldman) living in the Basque country after his marriage to a Spanish woman (Sánchez-Gijón). But the discovery of a little girl with deformed hands will plunge them into a terrifying nightmare, they will be hunted by the villagers in a forest atmosphere worthy of Délivrance and of Chiens de paille. Produced by the Madrilènes at Montfort Producciones, co-produced with British Holy Cow Productions, the Spanish Videntia Frames and their countrymen at Filmax (also in charge of international sales) The Backwoods had a budget of 5,6 million dollars and filming, in English, took eight weeks in August-September.

Formerly at Fidélité Productions, Pablo Mehler explained to Cineuropa the development strategy at Divine Productions. "We brought Virginie Ledoyen to the project The Backwoods which was offered to us because of the links we fostered with Iker Monfort when he worked as director of production at Alquimia Cinema, before he set up Montfort Producciones. But our company is not specifically linked to Spain and we have three projects being written currently: two with the UK and one by a Swiss director living in France. Also we are in negotiations will well-known French directors. As for The Backwoods, it’s being edited at the moment and we hope it will be ready at the beginning of 2006.

(Translated from French)