For the second time since it was founded (after Sieranevada [+leggi anche:
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Q&A: Cristi Puiu
scheda film] in 2016), French international sales agent Elle Driver can boast a contender for the Palme d’Or on its slate, which will prove an excellent springboard for some strong deals at the Film Market of the 71^st Cannes Film Festival (8-19 May). Better still, it’s a surprising work that touches on two subjects perfectly in keeping with the times: feminism and the fight against extremism. With Girls of the Sun [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Eva Husson
scheda film], France’s Eva Husson sets her story somewhere in Kurdistan. Bahar (Golshifteh Farahani), the commanding officer of the Girls of the Sun, a battalion made up entirely of Kurdish female soldiers, is on the cusp of taking back control of the city where she was captured by extremists just a few months prior. French journalist Mathilde (Emmanuelle Bercot) is covering the first three days of the offensive. When the two women meet, all of Bahar’s experiences since the men in black burst into her life come bubbling back to the surface. 

At Cannes, Adeline Fontan Tessaur’s team will be selling two particularly mouth-watering titles that are currently in production: Casanova, Last Love [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Benoît Jacquot (starring Vincent Lindon, Stacy Martin and Valeria Golino – see the article) and The Room [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Christian Volckman
scheda film] by Christian Volckman (starring Olga Kurylenko and Belgium’s Kevin Janssens ).

Also worth noting among the pre-sales, Elle Driver will be keen to show buyers the screenplay for La paranza dei bambini, the upcoming film by Italy’s Claudio Giovannesi (Fiore [+leggi anche:
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Q&A: Claudio Giovannesi
scheda film]), an adaptation of the book by Roberto Saviano (Gomorrah), which depicts a gang of young Neapolitan teenagers and their rise to power in the criminal underworld. 

Other films in post-production include Savage [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Vincent Mariette and Vision [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Japan’s Naomi Kawase (toplined by Juliette Binoche), while Road of the Dead by Matt Birman (who co-wrote the screenplay with the late George Romero) and Daoud’s Winter by Kataiba Al-Janabi (a project selected in 2016 by the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Atelier) are in pre-production. 

The most notable market screenings are the documentary The Man Who Stole Banksy by Marco Prosperio, which has just had its world premiere in competition at Tribeca, and the US movie The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Desiree Akhavan (which won an award at Sundance).