19/05/2006

Cologne-based sales company Media Luna Entertainment is expecting brisk business with its star Cannes title Pingpong [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matthias Luthardt
interview: Sebastian Urzendowsky
film profile] by first time director Matthias Luthardt, which has its world premiere today in the Critics’ Week. "The film was really very well received at the press preview screening in Paris and we already have a lot of interest from Italian, French, UK and US buyers", said Media Luna’s sales and acquisition manager Sven Westphal.

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Pingpong is the story of 16 year-old Paul, who has a dangerous liaison with his aunt and is pushed to an act of desperation to free himself from her domination. Up-and-coming German director Luthardt, who co-wrote the script with Meike Haunck, studied literature and journalism in Germany and in France before getting into filmmaking. Produced by Niklas Bäumer for in co-production with HFF "Konrad Wolf", MDR and Koppmedia, Pingpong is vying for the Camera d’Or.

The auteur and producer-led sales company has a total of ten titles screening at the market, a mix of feature films and documentaries from South America, Spain, Germany and Switzerland. Those include Basque film Go Etxebeste!, co-written and directed by first-timers Asier Altuna and Telmo Esnal, which won the Youth Award at the 2005 San Sebastian Film Festival, and Swiss title Vitus [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Davi
interview: Fredi M. Murer
film profile] by Fredi M. Murer and starring Bruno Ganz, about a child pianist virtuoso, which was unveiled in the Berlinale Special section at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.