Desert islands, complicated relationships, atrocious reality shows, teenage foreign fighters: these and many more were the subjects brought to the table on the second day of the 9^th TorinoFilmLab Meeting Event (held between 23 and 25 November as part of the Turin Film Festival) dedicated to the presentation of new film projects looking for funding. From Italy to Iran, from Germany to Bulgaria and even Afghanistan, the journey through films from all over the world with the TFL once again brought an extraordinary variety of stories to yesterday’s pitch session. 

Based on the book of the same name by Christian Kracht is Jan-Ole Gerster’s project Imperium (Schiwago Film). This German director, whose film Oh Boy [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
interview : Jan Ole Gerster
fiche film] won the European Film Award for best Debut Film, among others, will be casting the same lead actor from his debut film, Tom Schilling, in the role of a man who moves to a desert island with the conviction that to reach his full potential, all man needs is sun and coconuts. Another man – this time one struggling with being dumped by his girlfriend, who ends up sleeping on the sofas of friends and relatives, observing the contradictions of their intimate lives – is the protagonist of L’ospite, the second film by Duccio Chiarini (Short Skin [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Duccio Chiarini
fiche film], which won a Special Mention at Venice), produced by Mood Film with French company House on Fire and Swiss company Cinéddoké: a bittersweet comedy which, according to the director, was inspired by the early films of Woody Allen. 

Chiarini’s film is being presented in the FrameWork programme, where it is hoping for a TFL production award, as is French (JBA Production)-Iranian production Yalda by Massoud Bakhshi (whose debut film, A Respectable Family, was selected for Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes): a disturbing cross-sectional glimpse at a society, Iranian society, in which life and death is decided on a reality show. Also competing in the FrameWork section is The Orphanage by Shahrbanoo Sadat (Adomeit Film) which brings together Denmark, Afghanistan and Poland and has received funding from the Creative Europe development fund: a film about being an orphan in Kabul during the civil war of the 1980s.

Foreign fighters and radicalisation are the issues broached instead by La cosa migliore by Federico Ferrone (Apapaja), which has received support from the Italian-French co-production fund run by the CNC and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism: a hypersensitive and fragile teenager from Northern Italy embarks on a journey that leads him to Syria (in the Script&Pitch programme). Turning instead to January by Bulgarian director Andrey Paounov (Portokal), we have a surreal fairy tale in which five men find themselves cut off by snow on the Balkan Mountains, and the only place they can take shelter is the bar of a run-down hotel from the 1970s, where they start to disappear one by one. Just as surreal is the drama Samira by Israeli filmmaker and visual artist Yael Bartana, which reflects on gender myths and identity through the story of a man, a former security guard, who is expecting a baby, possessed by the spirit of a Palestinian woman (produced by French company KinoElektron with Israeli company Ingenue Productions). 

Remember, there are just a few days left to apply for the next edition of the Script&Pitch programme of the TFL: the deadline for applications is 1 December 2016.