Luka will see filmmaker Jessica Woodworth offering up a highly personal and contemporary adaptation of Dino Buzzati’s masterpiece The Tartar Steppe.

The film tells the story of Luka, a young and ambitious soldier who joins a regiment stationed in an isolated fortress to take on a legendary enemy hailing from the North… After a gruelling trek through the desert which sees him arriving wild-eyed and haggard at the gates of the fortress, Luka discovers, as he’s getting back on his feet, that the stronghold doesn’t quite live up to its legend. It’s managed by a team of highly eccentric soldiers who impose rules bordering on the absurd onto each and every one of them.

Stepping in front of the camera, we find young Dutch actor Jonas Smulders (recently seen in the film Paradise Drifters [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
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This will be Jessica Woodworth’s first solo directorial effort, given that her previous films (Khadak [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jessica Woodworth
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scheda film], selected for Venice’s Giornate degli Autori and awarded the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Prize; Altiplano [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week; The Fifth Season [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jessica Woodworth
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scheda film], screened in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up; and The Barefoot Emperor, selected for Toronto) were all co-directed by Peter Brosens.

The latter is acting as producer of the present film by way of his company Bo Films, alongside co-producers Beluga Tree (managed by Diana Elbaum in Brussels), Krater Films (in Ghent), Palosanto Films (Italy), Volya Films (the Netherlands), Art Fest (Bulgaria) and Dokino (Armenia).