06/05/2010

Sales will get underway at the upcoming Film Market of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival (May 12-23) for five new projects added to French international seller Wild Bunch’s already well-stocked line-up (see news).

On the Croisette, Vincent Maraval’s team will launch negotiations for the as-yet-untitled feature by Belgian directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. The film, starring Cécile de France, centres on 11-year-old Cyrus, who escapes from the hostel where his father left him after promising to come back and fetch him. The young boy bangs in vain on the door of the apartment where they used to live, and then, pursued by the hostel staff, hides in a doctor’s surgery and throws himself into the arms of a young woman sitting in the waiting room.

Produced by the directors’ company (Les Films du Fleuve), France’s Archipel 35 and Italy’s Lucky Red, the film will start shooting in August.

Wild Bunch will also be hoping for success with Emir Kusturica’s Cool Water. Scripted by Gabriel Bornstein, the will traces the tragicomic misadventures of two young Palestinian brothers from eastern Jerusalem who want to transport their father’s body in their car in secret to bury him near Ramallah. But the car gets stolen and, whilst looking for it, the brothers meet a beautiful girl, some Russian traffickers, Israeli soldiers, and members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad… These encounters land them in a very dangerous situation.

Produced by Germany’s Brave New Work Film Productions and France’s Fidélité Films, Cool Water will start shooting in August.

At Cannes, Wild Bunch will also start pre-sales for Brazilian director Walter Salles’s Terra, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Ricardo Darin; Love & Bruises by China’s Lou Ye (co-produced by France’s Why Not, Les Films du Lendemain and Arte France Cinéma – currently filming with a cast headed by Tahar Rahim); and Marie Perennou and Claude Nuridsany’s The Field of Enchantment (produced by Thelma Films and Manchester Films).

(Translated from French)