L’héritage to compete at Rome
The first edition of the Rome Film Festival (October 13-21) – which will unveil its programme on Tuesday – is to feature in competition, according to our sources, L'héritage [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (lit. “Inheritance”), a French production from Films de la Strada.
Directed by Georgia’s Temur Babluani (Silver Bear at Berlin in 1993 for his previous title The Sun of the Wakeful) and his son Gela Babluani, whose career got off to a sensational start in 2005 with his first feature 13 (Tzameti) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fanny Saadi
interview: Gela Babluani
film profile] (Best First Feature Film at the 2005 Venice Film Festival – see Focus), the film’s remake rights have been bought by Brad Pitt and his company Plan B. L'héritage opens nationwide today through MK2 Distribution.
Starring Sylvie Testud, George Babluani (Temur’s son and star of 13), Stanislas Merhar, Pascal Bongard and Olga Legrand, L'héritage (formerly L'âme perdue du sommet) follows the misadventures of a French trio, Patricia (Testud), Jean (Merhar) and Céline (Legrand), who arrive in Tbilisi to gain ownership of an unlikely inheritance of a castle. Accompanied by their interpreter (Bongard), the three meet on a bus that drives them to the mountains, where an old man and his son (Babluani) are transporting an empty coffin.
The two men visit an old enemy clan where the grandfather has to be sacrificed in order to end the rivalry between their families. Armed with a camera, the trio decides to interfere in the settling of scores.
Scripted by Temur Babluani – who examines the codes of honour handed down from generation to generation – the film denounces tourists’ lack of respect for culture to reveal a multifaceted portrait of Georgia, with its awe-inspiring landscape and stark contrast between luxury and poverty.
Produced by Les Films de La Strada, the €1.35m L'héritage received €400,000 in advances in receipts from the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) and co-production funding from Premium Films and Solimane Productions.
World distribution is being handled by MK2 Diffusion.
(Translated from French)
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