NPP Dossier 2013

SEPT 26 - 29 UTRECHT FILMFESTIVAL.NL

NETHERLANDS PRODUCTION PLATFORM DOSSIER 2013 15TH Y R A S R ANNIVE NPP

INTERNATIONAL SECTION OF THE NETHERLANDS FILM FESTIVAL

Contents

Netherlands Production Platform 2013

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Credits and acknowledgments Foreword

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International Projects The Absence by Rainer Kirberg (Germany) The Burning Bridges by Pablo González (France) The Cliff Shore by Mehmet Can Mertoglu (Turkey) Cross your Heart by Petri Kotwica (Finland) Do You Love Me by Lina Luzyte (Lithuania) The Dream-God by Valeriya Gai Germanika (Russia) Equator by Hans van Nuffel (Belgium) God’s Legs by Pablo Malo (Spain) Heartstone by Gudmundur A. Gudmundsson (Iceland) Kai by Oleg Sentsov (Ukraine) My Name Is Emily by Simon Fitzmaurice (Ireland) Passing Clouds by Tatiana Korol (United Kingdom) Pigs on the Wind by Stergios Paschos (Greece) Play Me, Kusturica by Uros Tomic (Serbia) A Quiet Passion by Terence Davies (United Kingdom) Scrappers! A Northern Western by Max Zähle (Germany)

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Dutch Projects Abalone Wars by Heinrich Dahms Eisenstein in Guanajuato by Peter Greenaway Exotic Pictures by Edwin The Fear of God by Simon de Waal La Holandesa by Joost van Ginkel Monk by Ties Schenk The Witch of the Fens by Thijs Schreuder

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Previous Departures from NPP Index

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The Holland Film Meeting 2013 takes place in cooperation with:

Film Producers Netherlands

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With thanks to Ido Abram Peter Dinges James Hickey Nicola Jones Olga Kolegaeva Simon Perry Nick Roddick Tito Rodríguez Tina Trapp Gülin Üstün Miroljub Vuckovic HFM Advisory Board Esther Bannenberg Stienette Bosklopper Ger Bouma 2 NPP 2013

Ellis Driessen Satu Elo Marjan van der Haar Sonja Heinen Claudia Landsberger Frank Peijnenburg Marten Rabarts Dominique van Ratingen Netherlands Film Festival Director Willemien van Aalst Head Holland Film Meeting Signe Zeilich-Jensen Producer Holland Film Meeting Susanne van Doorn

1/27/09 2:48:17 PM

Coordinator Netherlands Production Platform Mercedes Martínez-Abarca Jury Host Fay Breeman Guest Department Nasztázia Potapenko Sonja Hermans Moderators Ido Abram Nikolaj Nikitin Marten Rabarts Editing NPP Dossier Fay Breeman Nick Cunningham Mercedes Martínez-Abarca

Design NPP Dossier Marinka Reuten Printing NPP Dossier Veenman+ Netherlands Film Festival Holland Film Meeting PO Box 1581 3500 BN Utrecht The Netherlands +31-30-2303800 hfm@filmfestival.nl npp@filmfestival.nl www.filmfestival.nl

Foreword Welcome to the 15th edition of the Netherlands Production Platform We are very proud to present the project line-up of the 15th Netherlands Production Platform (NPP), which this year offers a selection of 23 projects in development from 15 countries.

In this dossier you will find a description and factual information of all the selected projects.

We were surprised by the high number of submissions and impressed by the high quality of the projects that we received, which made the selection process considerably more difficult than usual. At this critical time it seems more important than ever to support new and diverse stories and to allow them to be told. We hope that you will find the projects as touching, as funny and as intriguing as we do, during the pitches, the round table sessions and the one-to-one meetings.

Within the context of the Netherlands-Russia bilateral year the Holland Film Meeting (HFM) is focussing on the Russian audiovisual industries in this edition. Therefore, special attention is given to projects from or related to Russia.

The long-lasting collaboration between the Binger and the NPP has resulted in a successful preparatory workshop entitled “Write a Script that Sells”, from which two projects have been selected for this year’s event.

We are greatful for the indispensable input from EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), ACE (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), FPN (Filmproducenten Nederland) and EYE Film Institute, and the networks of our partner markets: CineLink (Sarajevo), New Nordic Films (Haugesund) and Meetings on the Bridge (Istanbul).

Of great interest this year to project participants and guests, is our partner collaboration with the international B2B platform Festival Scope. Visit the Holland Film Meeting section of their website to know more about the projects and to watch previous works by our participants.

The NPP is celebrating its milestone birthday by launching a brand-new Work-in-Progress (WiP) session for former NPP projects, currently in postproduction. Welcome back, NPP-ers! This session takes place during the afternoon of Friday, September 27th at the Theatre Springhaver.

Additionally, a panel entitled Holland Meets Russia will take place on Thursday 26th September during which policy makers, film experts and producers will have the possibility to meet and examine various possibilities for co-production with Russia.

The filmmakers Victor Kossakovsky and Jos Stelling will share their experiences of co-production between The Netherlands and Russia.

The Netherlands Film Festival is honouring the Dutch film director Paula van der Oest as ‘Guest of the Year’. On Friday 27th September she will talk about her oeuvre, motives and methods during our annual Binger/Screen International Interview.

The HFM programme further offers a series of business events including a lecture by Franz Rodenkirchen about the challenges that face traditional scriptwriting within a rapidly changing landscape, a workshop on film marketing by Gruvi, and a seminar day on the impact of TV drama.

And needless to say, you should not miss our NPP prize-giving ceremony and party on Saturday, 29th of September at CitySense.

We would sincerely like to thank all our partners, financiers, sponsors and, last but not least, all the gifted filmmakers who contributed to this year’s NPP edition!

We wish you a rewarding stay.

Signe Zeilich-Jensen Head of Industry/Holland Film Meeting Mercedes Martínez-Abarca Coordinator Netherlands Production Platform

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The Absence jucca film Angerbauer & Kirberg GbR (Germany), Zeitun Films (Spain)

After an accident during an illegal fishing trip, Aleixo is stranded for four days and four nights on a rock island, surrounded by the heavy breath of the ocean, seeking salvation.

Synopsis The Absence follows Aleixo, a young surfboard designer in a Galician coast village, on the most existential adventure of his life. After losing his job because of the economic crisis, Aleixo is faced with the need to feed his wife Marina and their soon-to-be-born baby.

Giving no notice, Aleixo sets out to sea in his boat to illegally fish for barnacles - one of the highest-priced seafood specialties in the world. He suffers an accident and loses his boat, but manages to find refuge for himself and his dog on a faraway rock island.

During four days and four nights, surrounded by the heavy breath of the ocean, Aleixo is seeking salvation... The Absence needs no shark-infested waters to put Aleixo in danger. What lurks in the sea is the unknown - faceless and indefinite. Peremptory loneliness, the uncertainty of his fate and his own inner demons befall Aleixo, driving him into a disturbing and delirious experience he will never be able to share.

Director’s Statement Finisterrae – the image of the sea inevitably evokes a promise. The horizon lures us into the faraway, into an adventure, maybe a new homeland, and the chance of a better life. Having spent eight years of my childhood on the northern coast of Spain this indefinite state of longing has become part of my soul.

I have always wanted to make a movie about the sea. With The Absence I am lucky to have found a plot, a hero, and an ensemble 4 NPP 2013

of characters who pay tribute to the people that live by the sea, entrenched in contemporary social issues – yet at the same time, embodying timeless archetypes.

The Absence is an ode to the sea whose sublime character breathes within the narrative. The force of nature reveals the fragility of the human being. The spectator experiences Aleixo’s hardship as an existential as well as a spiritual one.

Director’s Profile Rainer Kirberg, born in 1954, studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Düsseldorf and works as an artist, filmmaker, and screenwriter in the film and television industries. His cinema work comprises of four feature films, among them the cult classic The Last Revenge (1980).

Since 1978 his artistic work (film, installation, performance) has been exhibited nationally and internationally in renowned institutions and several of the music videos he directed for the international independent music scene have been acquired by the Cinémathèque Française.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile jucca film is a German production company, founded in 2006 by Caroline Kirberg (producer/director) and Judith Angerbauer (writer/ producer). In 2011 Michael Kotschi (DOP/producer) joined the team.

We produce internationally oriented fiction and documentary films characterised by strong creative approaches. We believe in the synergy of our different areas of expertise.

Our first feature film The Sleeping Girl by Rainer Kirberg premiered at Berlin International Film Festival in 2011, travelling to several international film festivals before its release in German cinemas in January 2013.

Since 2010 Caroline Kirberg has specialized in the production of films bridging the divide between art and film, with the aim of bringing fresh cinematic approaches to the big screen. Besides producing The Sleeping Girl, she was in charge of the production for Rushes by Clemens von Wedemeyer, which screened at dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012.

Rainer Kirberg

Current Status • 2nd script available • 3rd draft in progress • A third of the budget in place • MEDIA development • German distributor attached • LOIs from DOP Eduard Grau, actor Carloto Cotta, line producer Jürgen Tröster Aims at the NPP To present our project to internationally renowned film professionals, to raise interest in international producers, especially from Benelux and France for co-production, to get valuable feedback from professionals, to discuss international financing possibilities and to raise interest from international sales agents, commissioning editors and distributors.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film The Sleeping Girl (2012).

Caroline Kirberg

Felipe Lage

Director Rainer Kirberg Producers Caroline Kirberg, Felipe Lage, Michael Kotschi, Judith Angerbauer Screenwriter Rainer Kirberg Based on an original screenplay Language Spanish Genre Drama/Adventure Format HD Running time 100 minutes Target audience Men and women aged 2540 years: adventurers, city slickers, academics, artaffiliates, couples etc.

Total budget €1.100.000 Total budget in place €395.000 Partners attached BKM Script Development Fund, MEDIA Development Fund, AGADIC Production Fund, Real Fiction Films Distribution, Post Republic Present at NPP Rainer Kirberg, Caroline Kirberg, Felipe Lage

Contact Caroline Kirberg jucca film Angerbauer & Kirberg GbR Skalitzer Str. 68 Berlin 10997 Germany +49-170-5510708 Email: caro@juccafilm.de www.juccafilm.de 2013 NPP 5

The Burning Bridges Los puentes en llamas

La Mer à Boire Productions (France)

A Colombian couple travel to Paris hoping to fix their marriage, but the wife falls in love with her husband’s estranged daughter and they embark on a passionate sexual affair.

Synopsis Bogotá. Fernando (51) asks Cristina (37) to join him on a business trip to Paris, hoping to restore their marriage. She accepts, but on arrival she is overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness. They sleep in Alicia’s minuscule apartment (Fernando’s French daughter from a previous marriage who he rarely sees).

The two women soon develop a sort of complicity. After Alicia makes a pass at Cristina, they become involved romantically.

Cristina is attracted to Alicia’s carefree ways, which are missing from her own life. They steal looks and kisses behind Fernando’s back. But when Fernando glimpses them kissing, Cristina panics and runs away. Alicia follows and convinces her to escape with her to Berlin.

apartment with two men, but Cristina is excluded from the sexual encounter. A drunken fight explodes and Alicia blames Cristina for her problems with Fernando. The police intervene and they are taken to a police station.

Cristina, wrecked, asks Fernando to come and get them. Alicia breaks down and persuades her father to take her back to Paris.

Cristina faces Fernando and explains that she will never be able to be with him again. Fernando understands that he must confront his loneliness. They say their farewells and go their separate ways.

Director’s Statement In the beginning, all I knew was that I wanted to make a film about fear. Or, more accurately, a film about my own fear. Fear of life, fear of the future, fear of growing old and making the wrong decision. Fear of losing out on something, fear of being trapped in an existence you never imagined would be yours but that slowly became so, without you noticing it. Fear of being alone and at the same time, fear of being with the wrong person. Fear of dying while looking for something that can´t be found. It is this fear that fuels Cristina. But she is not running away from it. On the contrary, she is propelled by the desire to face it, to kill it. “Is this all there is?” is probably the question she asks herself. Her story, however, is more about the question itself than the answer.

The trip is an idyllic episode of amour fou and Cristina soon realises that she is falling in love with Alicia. When Fernando calls, she tells him she has decided to be with Alicia and hangs up. Fernando panics and runs after both women.

Director’s Profile Pablo González was born in Mexico in 1983, but grew up in Colombia. He studied Communications and then Film Theory in Paris. He has worked as writer and director in both fiction and advertising. He has written and directed nine fictional short films and one mockumentary about the origins of his family. In 2012, he co-wrote and directed his first feature project entitled Die unendliche Stadt (in post-production), which was shot in Berlin.

Besides his work in fiction, he has shot over forty commercial spots for television in Latin America. He currently lives in Berlin.

Cristina and Alicia get to Berlin and indulge in a mad partying spree. Cristina sees that Alicia’s interest in her is only a caprice, but tries to keep up with her through a night of drugs and alcohol in a failed attempt to connect with her. They end up at an

Production Company / Producer’s Profile La Mer à Boire is a new film production company created by the co-founder of Les Films au Long Cours. With over fifteen years experience and forty short films to his name, Ludovic Henry has

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Pablo González

consciously designed this new production company to properly support the short-film directors that he has already helped bring to the fore.

Three partners have joined Ludovic: Bruno Campenon (MD at BNP Paribas Securities Services Hong Kong), Bernard Pierre Molin (scriptwriter) and Antoine Roux (actor).

Aside from the traditional boundaries of film production, at La Mer à Boire we are bound only by our will to deliver. A will that drives us to rush to complete a project or equally the will that makes us take our time to bring it to its proper maturity. The underlying idea is to best serve the ideas themselves: those which inspire our passion and eclipse the limits of our soul.

Current Status Writing and development of the script. Looking for two coproducers.

Aims at the NPP To find two co-production partners, and to receive script advice.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film Leave Not a Cloud Behind (2010).

Ludovic Henry

Director Pablo González Producer Ludovic Henry Screenwriter Pablo González Based on an original screenplay Languages French/Spanish/German Genre Drama Format HD Running time 90 minutes Target audience +16 Total budget €450.000 Total budget in place €25.000 Present at NPP Ludovic Henry, Pablo González

Contact Ludovic Henry La Mer à Boire Productions 7 Quai aux Fleurs 75004 Paris France + 33-6-80663701 Email: l.henry@lamab-prod.fr www.lamab-prod.fr 2013 NPP 7

The Cliff Shore Albüm

Kamara (Turkey)

A couple in their late 30s set out to prepare a photo album chronicling the pseudo pregnancy of the baby they’re planning to adopt.

Director’s Profile Mehmet Can Mertoğlu was born in Akhisar, Turkey in 1988. He studied Turkish Literature at the Bosphorus University in Istanbul.

His first short film Yokus (The Slope) had its world premiere at the 62nd Edinburgh Film Festival. The film was also screened at numerous other international film festivals including Rotterdam, Montreal and Angers. In 2012, he completed his second short Fer (Glimmer), which participated in Berlinale Cloud. He is currently working on his first feature, Albüm (The Cliff Shore).

Synopsis Cüneyt and Bahar are a married couple in their late thirties living and working in Antalya, in southern Turkey. They decide to adopt a baby after failing to produce one through biological means. While awaiting their turn, they start to prepare a photo album to record the full false-pregnancy term, so that the baby will, in the future, consider them as biological parents too. After the adoption, the couple’s desire to leave Antalya for a new life elsewhere is made possible through bureaucratic influence, and Cüneyt is assigned to the city of Kayseri in central Anatolia. But after an unexpected criminal event, a police investigation uncovers information about the adoption. The couple wonder whether they shouldn’t just move to Africa.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Kamara was founded in 2011 by producer Yoel Meranda and director Eytan Ipeker. The company is developing two feature films: The Cliff Shore by Mehmet Can Mertoğlu and Everything Is OK by Theron Patterson (whose first feature Dark Cloud was screened in Toronto and nominated for Best Film and Best Director by the Turkish Film Critics Society). Everything Is OK won the Pack & Pitch Award at the 2012 Sarajevo Film Festival. The company has produced Fer (Glimmer) the second short film of Mehmet Can Mertoğlu. A short documentary directed by Eytan Ipeker on the Turkish pianist Idil Biret is distributed worldwide by Naxos. Kamara is also producing a web series together with Altyazı Film Journal. The experimental videos Yoel Meranda directed have screened at many international film festivals including Toronto, Edinburgh, Thessaloniki and !f Istanbul.

Director’s Statement When, as a last resort, adoption is decided upon by childless couples, it is common practice in Turkey for the parents to generate false proof of a biological tie to the baby.

The best way to tell this story is through humour that at times reaches absurd heights but is also anchored to a system of orphanages, middle schools, hospitals, etc., which feel like one extended space belonging to the Turkish bureaucracy. Instead of grand dialogues, I aim to weave in a seemingly dead-end series of conversations that will intensify the dark humour.

Inspired by the films of Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Roy Andersson, Aki Kaurismäki and Elia Suleiman, I hope to create a new cinematic space in contemporary Turkey.

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Current Status Script Development (3rd draft) and financing (two awards at Meetings on the Bridge). Attended Produire au Sud and Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Cinematographer Marius Panduru and male lead Murat Kılıç attached.

Aims at the NPP Looking for co-producers from Western Europe and Scandinavia, especially for creative feedback and post-production. Presenting the project to TV channels, festivals and arthouse distributors.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film Glimmer (Fer) (2012).

Mehmet Can Mertoğlu

Yoel Meranda

Director Mehmet Can Mertoğlu Producer Yoel Meranda Screenwriter Mehmet Can Mertoğlu Based on an original screenplay Languages Turkish Genre Black Comedy Format 35mm Running time 95 minutes Target audience International arthouse audiences interested in black comedies Total budget €647.500 Total budget in place €87.500

Partners attached Meetings on the Bridge Ministry of Culture Prize, Meetings on the Bridge Melodika PostProduction Prize Present at NPP Mehmet Can Mertoglu, Yoel Meranda

Contact Yoel Meranda Kamara Kutlu Sok. 9/1 Gümüşsuyu Mah. Beyoğlu Istanbul / 34437 Turkey +90-532-4076047 Email: yoel@kamarafilm.com www.kamarafilm.com 2013 NPP 9

Cross Your Heart Henkesi edestä

Vertigo Production (Finland)

Kiia and Martin are speeding to the hospital because Kiia is in labor. Their car hits something. In the hospital Kiia meets Hanna, whose husband is in a coma, victim of a hit-and-run driver.

Synopsis Kiia has gone into premature labour. She is speeding down a dark country road with her husband Martin when their car hits something.

Martin goes to take a look and tells his wife he saw an injured elk.

They rush to the hospital, and Kiia gives birth to a healthy child.

While in hospital, Kiia meets Hanna, a woman whose husband is in a coma, the victim of a hit-and-run driver. This confirms Kiia’s suspicions - her husband had lied about the accident. Kiia befriends Hanna and tries to help her desperately without revealing her role in the accident. Kiia’s marriage is tested when the darker sides of Martin surface, as he wants to hide the secret and protect his family at any cost. When the truth finally dawns, will it be too late to forgive, while life and death hang in the balance?

Director’s Statement In 2001 I survived a car accident, and thank God no one else was injured. As I recovered, I replayed the accident a thousand times in my head, both awake and in my dreams, contemplating what might have happened. Therefore I need to tell this story.

points of the story are played out in the isolation of a wintry Finnish archipelago. The presence of snow and ice conjure an elegiac but frightening atmosphere for the film’s most poignant scenes.

Director’s Profile Petri Kotwica is an award-winning Finnish film director and screenwriter. His first feature Homesick (2005) was lauded at numerous international festivals. His second feature Black Ice premiered in competition at the Berlinale 2008. Black Ice was a box office hit in Finland, won six national film awards and has been screened at more than fifty film festivals. Former NPP project Rat King (2012) had its international premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in 2012.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Vertigo produces both feature films and television drama series. The company was founded in 2006 by director/producer Minna Virtanen who, prior to that date, had worked closely for several years with Solar Films as a director. She has directed many award-winning Scandinavian crime series and one feature film.

Vertigo has gained a reputation for quality artistic edge combined with commercial interests. Currently Vertigo is developing several feature films with internationally prominent directors, such as Petri Kotwica and Aku Louhimies.

Current Status In development stage. Recent completion of English-language script. Development supported by the Finnish Film Foundation and MEDIA. In discussion about local distribution with TV channel YLE1 and Nordisk Film. Production 2014.

Cross your Heart is a character-driven suspense drama. I want to continue in the vein of my film Black Ice, and build a story around compelling female roles. Each character is strong-willed and has so much to lose in a battle of wills that must ultimately be resolved.

Aims at the NPP Looking for international minority co-production partners, international sales agents and distributors and financiers to become involved in the project. Strong networking with film festivals and film funds, as well with the wider film industry, such as screenwriters.

I want to captivate the audience with Cross your Heart’s suspenseful and visual storytelling and a strong sense of place. Key turning

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film Black Ice (2007).

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CROSS

YOUR

HEART A FILM BY PETRI KOTWICA

Petri Kotwica

Minna Virtanen

Director Petri Kotwica Producer Minna Virtanen Screenwriter Petri Kotwica, Johanna Hartikainen Based on an original screenplay Language Finnish Genre Suspense drama Format HD Running time 90 minutes Target audience Female audiences, suspense drama lovers Total budget â‚Ź1.500.000 Total budget in place â‚Ź100.000

Partners attached Finnish Film Foundation, MEDIA, Broadcaster YLE 1, Cinema distributor Nordisk Film Present at NPP Minna Virtanen, Petri Kotwica

Contact Minna Virtanen Vertigo Pohjoisesplanadi 27 C, 3rd floor 00100 Helsinki Finland +35-85-04904119 Email: minna@vertigo.fi www.vertigo.fi 2013 NPP 11

Do You Love Me Ar tu mane myli

Just a moment (Lithuania), Volya Films (The Netherlands), Mandra Films (France), Kundschafter Filmproduktion (Germany) Family: man, woman, girl.

Existing next to each other.

Solitude and hatred. What keeps them together?

Synopsis When Wife, Husband and 11 year-old Daughter return to their apartment the last thing they expect is to find the neighbours in their kitchen looking for a water leak. Their apartment was flooded and they came to check whether Family left the tap running upstairs. They didn’t.

“I’m not worried about any flooding”, says Husband, and would add “of course it’s not our fault”, but worried about how his wife would react to him repeating her exact words, he stays quiet. He only speaks his mind to protect his Daughter even from the simple things - like swallowing tea that is too hot.

“Is that all you have to say in this life?” is Daughter’s response to Father’s concern. She realizes she sounds exactly like her mother, which makes her proud because Mother is always right.

Having dinner, each thinking their own thoughts, they can all feel the tragedy coming. And it comes in the shape of a hole in their kitchen wall that is supposed to dry out the water leak. The same water which flooded their neighbour’s apartment and which is not their fault. But which manages to shake up their nice family facade like an earthquake.

The family falls apart.

Husband and Wife meet again in the police station, where they discover through a two-way mirror their daughter. She has been declared a runaway and she claims she has no parents.

The parents claim that she does, and shortly all three are reunited back at home.

Mother looks back at her husband lingering at the doorstep, unsure whether he should enter the apartment or stay out. When he finally takes off his shoes, Daughter decides from now on she will be like her father.

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She opens the window to let some fresh air in. And a quick thought crosses her mind - she could also just be herself.

Director’s Statement My initial intent, when starting to develop this story, was to take a closer look at my own family, in which I grew up and which, looking back, seemed more and more sadistic even though we were considered a nice family getting along well.

Later on, while developing the script, I noticed that most of the people I know around me have similar experiences - some in the roles of victims, others as executioners.

Furthermore, I’ve started to realise that none of them were actually victims, nor executioners, but simply people living in these strange times. Most of us are free, having rights and possibilities to choose to live the way we want to, yet we do not use these privileges. Just living our lives full of loneliness and longing to control and to be controlled by others. Wanting to depend on them and hoping that they will slavishly depend on us.

I find this very obvious and paradoxical at the same time. I’m interested in exploring and examining the dynamics of the relationship between the people living nowadays. About them and myself too.

Director’s Profile In 2011 Lina Luzyte graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre with MA in Film Directing. She has numerous writing and directing credits in advertising and film, and has worked as a 1st AD as well as casting director on a variety of projects both in Lithuania and abroad.

In 2009 she wrote and directed It Would Be Splendid, Yet (28’) that has been selected for over fifteen international festivals and has won seven awards.

In 2010 Lina shot the documentary Igrushki (59’), nominated for the Best Documentary of the Year at National Film Awards 2013.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Producer Dagne Vildziunaite is a member of Lithuanian Film Academy and belongs to EAVE, EX-ORIENTE and EURODOC networks. She holds a B.A. in both Psychology and TV & Film Management.

In 2007 she established the Vilnius-based production company Just a Moment to develop projects with both young and more experienced filmmakers. The company is involved in international co-productions. As yet our filmography includes four short films, six documentaries and one TV series.

Films (co)produced by Just a Moment have been selected for such festivals as Venice, Visions du Reel, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Moscow IFF, Warsaw IFF, Krakow IFF, DocPoint, Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival and Trieste IFF. Current Status With a final script and Lithuanian financing in place we are still raising funds in co-production countries and planning the shoot for 2014.

Aims at the NPP We want to present and discuss the upcoming film with Dutch financiers and distributors.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film It Would Be Splendid, Yet (2009)

Lina Luzyte

Dagne Vildziunaite

Director Lina Luzyte Producers Dagne Vildziunaite, Denis Vaslin, Eric Mabillon, Dirk Engelhardt Screenwriter Lina Luzyte Based on an original screenplay Language Lithuanian Genre Drama Format HD Running time 80 - 90 minutes Target audience Female, from age 18 to 55 Total budget €700.000 Total budget in place €299.479

Partners attached Lithuanian Film Centre, Nipkow, Torino Film Lab Present at NPP Dagne Vildziunaite, Denis Vaslin

Contact Dagne Vildziunaite Just a moment Pylimo str. 9 -13 Vilnius, LT 01118 Lithuania +37-06-8688980 Email: dagne@justamoment.lt www.justamoment.lt 2013 NPP 13

The Dream-God Proline Film (Russia)

A monstrous but friendly dream-god, resembling a freaky goth, visits a boy in his bedroom every night, but drives one of the boy’s adult neighbours to suicide.

Synopsis The screenplay is loosely based on the fairy tale The Sandman (also translated as Ole-Luk-Oie, The Dream God) by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen.

The Dream God is a film about difficult relationships between parents and children. Although the plot is based on a fairy tale that was written many years ago, the story remains vibrantly relevant today. It tells the story of what seems to be a happy and well-off family. But the little boy and his parents don’t understand each other, and so the child looks for the answers to his questions in the world of dreams.

Director’s Statement The movie is based on Ole-Luk-Oie, the Dream-God, the well-known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The romantic storyline tells about an ordinary boy’s fabulous night visions inspiring his little heart with faith and joy that finally enables the child to overcome all his fears. In our attempt to perceive the miracle of Andersen’s tale we focus on the ‘awake’ part of it – on the boy’s life texture, on his world that is being embraced by ‘the ocean of dreams’.

The Boy and his Night Visitor are the main characters, secret friends. The other characters are his young parents, a rebellious teenage sister, a cheerful neighbour and a young teacher who is vainly trying to apply advanced pedagogical methods of teaching.

Music is extremely important within the movie and how it is to be perceived. Parents enjoy classic and academic avant-garde music composed by the teacher, but the late-night sounds and the gothic 14 NPP 2013

rock of his elder sister become the boy’s personal music during his vigils and games.

Director’s Profile Valeriya Gai Germanika is a Russian film director, dedicated to the themes of growing-up and coming-of-age. This courageous author, who gained international recognition with major festival awards including a Special Distinction (Caméra d’Or) at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 (for Everybody Dies But Me), is considered to be an “enfant terrible” of modern Russian cinema and one of its artistic pioneers.

Filmography: Girls (documentary, 2005), Boys (2007), Birthday Of The Infanta (documentary, 2005), Everybody Dies But Me (2008), School (TV series, 2010), Brief Guide To A Happy Life (TV Series, 2012) Production Company / Producer’s Profile Producer and composer Andrey Sigle is CEO of Proline Film and ASDS Studios (Saint Petersburg), Honoured Art Worker of the Russian Federation, member of the European Film Academy and the European Producers Club.

Russian and foreign critics have described Sigle as one of the leading Russian producers of auteur cinema. He has been awarded many times, including the Time For Peace Film and Music Award for Alexandra and the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival for Faust.

Selected filmography: The Role (2013, K. Lopushansky), Faust (2011, A. Sokurov), Alexandra (2007, A.Sokurov), The Ugly Swans (2006, K. Lopushansky), Serko (2006 Joël Farges) Current Status In pre-production.

Aims at the NPP We are looking for a co-producer.

Valeriya Gai Germanika

Andrei Sigle

Leonid Choub

Director Valeriya Gai Germanika Producers Andrei Sigle, Leonid Choub Screenwriter Alexander Radionov Based on the fairy tale “Ole-LukOie” by Hans Christian Andersen Languages Russian/English Genre Fairy Tale Running time 110 minutes Target audience 8-82 Total budget €1.875.000 Total budget in place €1.250.000

Partners attached Russian Ministry of Culture Present at NPP Leonid Choub

Contact Andrei Sigle, Leonid Choub Proline Film Kamennoostrovsky pr. 29 of. 34 197022 St. Petersburg Russia +7-911-7716555 Email: lchoub@hotmail.com www.prolinefilm.ru 2013 NPP 15

Equator Savage Film (Belgium)

The daughter of a recently deceased entrepreneur convinces a former child soldier to accompany her to Congo to find out what really happened to her father.

Synopsis Charlotte, the young daughter of a wealthy Belgian businessman, is crushed when she hears that her father Didier has died in a car crash in Congo. In his will she is made sole beneficiary.

Alarmed by these events, Charlotte convinces Joseph, an ex-child soldier and former protégé of her father, to help her find out what really happened. Along the way she finds out her father was an arms dealer, and that his death may not have been accidental. As the evidence piles up, her uncle (Francois) becomes the most likely suspect of her Didier’s early demise.

Together Charlotte and Joseph coerce her Uncle into telling the truth: he confesses that her father is still alive, but chose to abandon them to start a new life, freed from all the accusations that had been chasing him.

Charlotte and Joseph then travel to Cape Town, where they manage to track down Didier, hidden away in a luxurious mansion with his ‘new’ family, a black woman and a newborn son. Didier keeps up the façade, tries to reason with all the parties involved. He bribes Joseph into leaving Charlotte behind with him, and then forces her to return to home.

Before he has his bodyguard escort her to the airport, Didier confesses to Charlotte that Joseph is his son, and thus her halfbrother. Charlotte is crushed when she realizes her father never really loved her, and that his reasons for abandoning them were always selfish.

16 NPP 2013

Joseph saves her from the clutches of her father’s bodyguard, and together they return to her father’s house, so they can settle things once and for all.

From that point on, Charlotte’s journey to save her father turns into a quest for revenge.

She realizes her father is a monster. And monsters have to be stopped.

Director’s Statement Only once my childhood friend Egide told me about his exodus from Rwanda. He remained quite detached, emotionless even, as he told me about the night his whole family was murdered by a battalion of Hutus. He was the sole survivor, and drifted around for more than two years before he was finally put on a plane to Belgium.

The central idea for this film came much later, after attending the funeral of the rich father of a former girlfriend of mine. A young Congolese boy came up to introduce himself after the service. He turned out to be my ex-girlfriend’s younger half-brother. She was in shock, her mother less so. She obviously knew about it, but had always kept her mouth shut.

Equator is a film about loss, guilt and redemption. It’s a story about a girl who discovers something about her herself by treading in her father’s footsteps. It’s also a story about an impossible love affair between two opposites, and how sometimes, family ties need to be cut in order to move on.

Director’s Profile Hans van Nuffel’s first feature film Adem (Oxygen) (2010) won over twenty international film awards, among these a Discovery Award at the 2011 European Film Awards. He has since been working on his new film Equator, produced by Savage Film (Bullhead), while collaborating with Roel Mondelaers on both Plan Bart and an animation feature film called Lucy to be directed by Raf Wathion. He will also be helming three episodes of The Riddler this autumn, a VRT/Eyeworks production.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Savage Film is an independent production company founded in 2007 by Bart Van Langendonck, operating from Brussels in an association with Eyeworks Belgium. The company established itself internationally with the film Bullhead, a box office hit in Belgium in 2011 as well as an Oscar® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, which sold to over 20 territories. Savage Film produces fiction films, documentaries and dance films, with subjects just as versatile as its directors’ backgrounds. Daring or controversial, a Savage Film project often balances on the boundaries of genre, be it fiction, documentary or art.

Hans van Nuffel

Bart van Langendonck

Director Hans van Nuffel Producer Bart van Langendonck Screenwriter Hans van Nuffel Based on an original screenplay Languages Dutch/French/ Kinyarwanda Genre Thriller/drama Format HD Running time 100 minutes Target audience Adolescents and above Total budget €2.300.000 Total budget in place €110.000

Partners attached MEDIA (slate funding), VAF, Eyeworks Belgium Present at NPP Bart van Langendonck, Hans van Nuffel

Current Status Equator is in its final development phase with support from MEDIA and VAF (Flanders Audiovisual Fund). Locations in Rwanda have been researched by the director. The script is in final phase.

Production support from VAF should be confirmed early December.

Aims at the NPP We wish to introduce the project to Benelux distributors and broadcasters, and to attach a Dutch co-producer.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film Oxygen (2010).

Contact Bart van Langendonck Savage Film 139 De Ribaucourtstraat 139 0/d Brussels 1080 Belgium +32-47-6551153 Email: bart@savagefilm.be www.savagefilm.be 2013 NPP 17

God’s Legs Las piernas de Dios

Imval Producciones (Spain)

Every country in the world has a national football team.

Except one. The Vatican. God knows, it’s time to fix this!

Synopsis The Roman Curia meets to find a solution for the biggest ecclesiastical crisis in history: what to do when the churches are empty but the soccer stadiums are crowded? There’s only one solution to this problem: to form the Vatican national football team.

But when the youngest (and quietest) bishop in the world, the Russian Uriel Gurov, suggests this idea he is laughed out of church.

A football team exclusively formed by priests? Rubbish.

Surprisingly, the only one who thinks it’s not bad a idea is the Pope, and decides to give it a chance. If Uriel proves that he’s able to set up a competitive team, the Vatican will be entered for the 2018 World Cup. After countless refusals, Uriel finds a coach willing to take on the task, but while Chus may be a very famous Argentinian scout he is not at the top of his game, having abandoned his family. And he drinks too. Nevertheless, Chus and Uriel start a journey around the world to build the most glorious national football team in history, mixing elements both human and divine within a heady and combustible cocktail.

As expected, the team is awful. The players are good individually, but they don’t gel as a team. Under Chus’ supervision, however, they improve. Bit by bit, little by little, the learn invaluable lessons about how to win a game of football.

Can Uriel, the demure bishop, manage finally to become a man of action? Will he be able to trick Monsignor Herman so the Pope doesn’t excommunicate the centre forward? Will Chus turn up in time for the game? And will they win it? And can the Vatican national football team qualify for the 2018 Russia World Cup? 18 NPP 2013

Director’s Statement When people think of mass phenomena they inevitably talk of two: religion and football. Few things are so universal and give rise to so much passion worldwide. It’s precisely within this juxtaposition where we found the opportunity to make a film with true international appeal. God’s Legs is a buddy movie, a characterdriven comedy in which the humour is rooted in the fusion of these two concepts.

Football is used here as an excuse, an emotional catalyst, because the film is really built on the relationships between the characters, especially Uriel and Chus. They are a truly odd couple, the timid priest and the rogue crackpot.

God’s Legs is a family story founded on universal themes: personal growth, commitment, family unity, the defence of the weak... but these are always treated with humour. It is a film of extremes and of contrasts - a film for all audiences.

Director’s Profile Pablo Malo was born in San Sebastian. In 2004 he directed his first feature film Cold Winter Sun which was selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival. It won fifteen awards at national and international festivals, as well as the GOYA award for Best New Director, plus a nomination for best editing. In 2007 he directed his second feature The Shade of Nobody which was awarded Best Feature and Best Director (and a Best Script nomination) at the El Mundo Awards to Basque Films. In 2011 he directed a number of episodes of Hispania for Antena 3, one of Spain’s leading television broadcasters.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Luis Angel Ramírez was selected by the Spanish Film Institute as Producer on the Move at Cannes 2007. He is a member of the European producers’ network ACE and of EAVE. He’s also member of the Spanish Film Academy and the European Film Academy.

Among his productions are The Invisible Eye by Diego Lerman, presented at Cannes 2010 and The Future (2012), directed by Alicia Schershon, a co-production with Chile, Germany and Italy, and presented at both Sundance and Rotterdam in 2013. He has recently completed three feature co-productions; The Fourth Company,

Pablo Malo

directed by Amir Galván and Mitzi Vanessa Arriola, with Mexico; Rabbit Woman by Verónica Chen with Argentina and Venezuela (selected for San Sebastian 2013) and Circus by Orlando Lübbert, a co-production with Chile.

Current Status Right now we have a first draft of the script and are working on the second draft. The next step is to select and attach the talent for the project.

Aims at the NPP To seek co-production partners - mainly from the Netherlands and Russia - and source financing through international sales agents, European and non-European TV broadcasters and private equity.

Looking for agents to close the talent package.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film The Shade of Nobody (La sombra de nadie) (2006).

Director Pablo Malo Producers Luis Angel Ramírez Screenwriter Francisco Araujo, Luis Angel Ramírez Based on an original screenplay Languages English Genre Comedy Format Alexa Digital 4k Running time 95 minutes Target audience 20-45 Total budget €3.800.000 Total budget in place €750.000

Luis Angel Ramírez

Partners attached Co-production partner Unafilm (Germany) Present at NPP Luis Angel Ramirez, Pablo Malo

Contact Luis Angel Ramírez Imval Producciones C/ Montejurra, 33, Escalera Izqu, Entresuelo B Madrid, 28017 Spain +34-91-4022385 Email: lramirez@imvalproducciones.com www.imvalproducciones.com 2013 NPP 19

Heartstone Hjartasteinn

Join Motion Pictures (Iceland)

Thor, a young boy growing up in a small village, loves Beth, the town cutie. His best friend Christian helps him win her heart but in the process finds himself falling for Thor.

Synopsis Set in the beautiful but harsh nature of Iceland, Heartstone tells a story of strong friendship between two boys growing up in a small fishing village.

Thor is small for his age and has a crush on Beth, the most beautiful girl in the village. When Thor’s best friend, Christian, sees how troubled Thor is, he tries to help him win over her heart.

But in that process, Christian begins to experience feelings that he doesn’t understand – new feelings toward Thor.

Christian presses these feelings and tries to channel them into a new direction by pursuing Hanna, Beth’s best friend. But when things start to work out between Thor and Beth, tension rises between the two boys and rumors about Thor’s and Christian’s sexuality start to circulate among the kids in town.

Thor realizes that for Christian he is more than just a friend and as a result distances himself. Now, Christian, left alone and faced with not being like the other kids in the village, resorts to a lifethreatening action. After that, the question arises: Will the boys’ friendship survive what has happened?

Director’s Statement Heartstone is a personal story based on my own experience as a young boy growing up in a small Icelandic fishing village.

The core of the story is a strong and beautiful friendship between two boys and how their surroundings and inner conflict drives them apart - but how their friendship reunites them again.

20 NPP 2013

In my childhood days in that small village, I had a good friend who was my protector. He was older and stronger than I was but also fair and conscientious – later in his own confusion, as with too many boys in Iceland, he took his own life.

Heartstone is a story that carries an important message for everyone, but especially for teenagers. A story of encounters with first love, brotherhood, independent girls and the importance of family. For me it is an adventure that the kids go through.

Heartstone deals with a serious topic but it is important to me that the story is also rich with lightness and humor so the kids can be portrayed in a realistic way. Because in life one moment we might cry and the next moment we laugh.

I have a burning desire to bring this story to life and a sincere believe that it can become a truly unique film.

Director’s Profile Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland 1982. He studied Fine Art in Iceland and Screenwriting in Denmark.

His short films have received many international awards, including a Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival 2013.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Join Motion Pictures was founded in 2007. It received support from the Entrepreneurship Center Innovit in its start-up days and has since focused on building a strong collaboration with upcoming cinematic authors. One of its recent productions, the short film Whale Valley, won awards at both the Cannes Film Festival and the Giffoni Film Festival this year.

Anton Máni Svansson has been working as an independent producer since 2006 and for the last couple of years he has been a board member of the Icelandic Filmmakers Association and the Icelandic Film and Television Academy.

Current Status In development/financing. We have raised 55% of the budget.

Aims at the NPP We are looking for co-production partners, co-financiers and sales agents.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film Whale Valley (2013).

Anton Máni Svansson

Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson

Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson Producers Anton Máni Svansson, Darin Mailand-Mercado, Hilmar Sigurðsson Screenwriter Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson Based on an original screenplay Language Icelandic Genre Coming of age Format HD Arri Alexa Running time 110 minutes Target audience 13+ Total budget €1.500.000 Total budget in place €825.000

Partners attached The Icelandic Film Centre, local distributor Sena and The Ministry of Industries and Innovation.

Present at NPP Anton Máni Svansson, Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson

Contact Anton Máni Svansson Join Motion Pictures Birkiholt / 4 Alftanes / 225 Iceland +354-615-0005 Email: anton@fraefilms.com www.facebook.com/whalevalley 2013 NPP 21

Kai CryCinema (Ukraine)

A man looks for a reason to exist after losing the love of those around him.

Synopsis A man’s emotional detachment endangers his relationship with the world around him, and destroys his marriage. After dealing with bankruptcy, betrayal and his son’s debilitating illness, he tries to find meaning in his life – while ignoring the fact that he has already lost his family.

Director’s Statement Kai is a multi-layered film with a complex internal structure, but it is very simple in form. The second and the third parts are reversed, and there are several flashbacks inserted into a coherent narrative.

The main character is a closed and strange person unappreciated even by his closest acquaintances. He is like Kai, the boy from the Hans Christian Andersen tale, who has lost all love and is looking for a reason to exist. The hero’s autism and his inner pain increase with each plot development - a failed romance with his mistress, a cooling of relations with his wife Natasha, his personal financial crisis and the crippling disease of his young child.

The link between the father and the son is Natasha - the wife and mother. She is like the brave goddess Gerd who tries to rescue her son from his ice prison, from his terrible disease. At the same time she breaks, and then tries to fix, her relationship with the husband who betrayed her.

The film is based on the classical three-act structure. The first part takes place over one day, when we become acquainted with the main character, his family, and their problems. Then we gradually move to the main question about Kai’s relations with his women, and the eternal choice about who to be with: a wife or a mistress?

The second part (the third in chronological order) also lasts one day, starting with Kai’s visit to his newly-estranged wife and children, 22 NPP 2013

for he has chosen for himself loneliness. On the way back, Kai is involved in a terrible train crash, in which he probably dies. The third and final part (the second chronologically) tells of the disorder within the relationship between Kai and Natasha, and the fight for their child.

The end of the film is a snatched moment before the train accident, which of course not only shows human suffering but is also a metaphor for the main character’s disastrous internal state. On this elusive note the film ends.

Director’s Profile Oleg Sentsov was born in Ukraine in 1976 and was educated at the Kiev National Economic University from 1993 to 1998. He made his feature debut Gaamer in 2011. The film screened at over 30 international film festivals, winning numerous prizes in the process.

His co-pro feature Rhino will start shooting in September 2013. The project picked up a number of development prizes in 2012, at the Sofia Meetings, Directors Across Borders (Yerevan) and at the Odessa International Film Festival.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile The film studio CryCinema was founded in 2008 by a team of people who shared the thought that they could not live without shooting films. We dare to shoot the films that will not be classified as independent or commercial, artistic or mainstream, artstream or any other ‘stream’ made up by smart film critics or directors.

CryCinema’s films have to be good. No other criterion.

Current Status Development and financing.

Aims at the NPP To find a Dutch co-producer.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film Gaamer (2011).

Oleg Sentsov

Olga Zhurzhenko

Ievgeniia Raukh

Director Oleg Sentsov Producer Olga Zhurzhenko Screenwriter Oleg Sentsov Based on an original screenplay Languages Russian Genre Drama catastrophe Format HD Running time 100 minutes Target audience Adults 25-50 years, primarily females interested in arthouse films Total budget â‚Ź3.000.000 Total budget in place â‚Ź1.500.000

Partners attached Ukranian State Film Agency Present at NPP Ievgeniia Raukh, Oleg Sentsov

Contact Olga Zhurzhenko CryCinema Kinnoi Armii 37, app. 18 Simferopol 95000 Ukraine +38-05-06885157 Email: crycinema@gmail.com www.crycinema.com 2013 NPP 23

My Name is Emily Kennedy Films/Newgrange Pictures (Ireland)

On her 16th birthday Emily escapes from her foster home. Together with Arden, a boy who loves her, she endeavours to find her father, a visionary writer locked up in an institution.

Synopsis It’s Emily’s 16th birthday and it’s been a long time since she received a letter from her father, a writer who has spent the last two years in a far off mental institution. Emily, a lonely, thoughtful girl, is consumed by fragmented memories of her happy childhood, her loving mother and her charismatic father. These memories are darkened by her mother’s untimely death and her father’s subsequent psychological demise.

Now Emily is stranded in a foster home in a bleak estate with her foster parents. At school, Emily meets Arden, an individual driven by a simple force, love. Arden immediately falls for Emily during English class when she unabashedly discusses the sexual meaning behind a Wordsworth poem to the shock of the prudish teacher.

Arden tries to get her attention, but Emily is like a closed book.

While she is interested in Arden, she’s drowning in her inner world, worried about her father and the letters that don’t come anymore.

The worry becomes overwhelming, so Emily asks Arden to help her find out what has happened to her father. Arden takes her to the one person he trusts; his eccentric and loving grandmother.

Arden’s grandmother is delighted with their quest. She gives Arden the keys to her vintage yellow Renault 4 and a velvet suit which his grandfather used to wear.

Together Emily and Arden drive across Ireland to find Emily’s father.

They are an odd couple, this pale girl and the boy in the velvet suit, 24 NPP 2013

and along the way they fall in love. When Emily meets Dr. Golding, the Head of the Psychiatric institution, she hears some hard truths about her father and in the end Emily learns that she must face her father’s madness in order to come to terms with the past that binds her.

Director’s Statement My wife wants me to be a novelist. But I’m not a novelist. I’m a filmmaker. A writer and director. Once you find out what is it that moves and shakes you, you don’t want to do or be anything else.

I’m also a filmmaker with MND (Motor Neurone Disease), but unlike other filmmakers, I’m unencumbered with the worries and stresses of building a career out of the work I love. MND aptly strips you of such worries, coming as it does with far more pressing demands.

The film I desire to make is My Name Is Emily. It’s been living inside me for the past five years. Emily fascinates me. I believe in the power to take what life throws at you and to slowly come back, to take all you have and not be crushed to death by sadness and loss.

Because I believe in redemption. And that is Emily’s story.

Director’s Profile Simon Fitzmaurice is an award-winning writer and film director.

His films have screened at film festivals all over the world and won prizes at home and abroad, including Best Short Film at The Cork Film Festival and The Belfast Film Festival (twice), the Grand Jury Prize at the Opalcine Film Festival (Paris), the Jimmy Stewart Memorial Award at The Heartland Film Festival and Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. His short film The Sound of People was selected to screen at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Kennedy Films was founded in 2012 by Kathryn Kennedy who has a decade’s worth of experience working in the Irish Film industry in both the assistant directing and production departments. The company’s first project was Just by Saying by writer/director Dave Tynan, an experimental short film, which has since become a viral sensation, gaining over a quarter of a million hits in its first week online (400.000 hits to date).

Simon Fitzmaurice

Newgrange Pictures was founded in 2005 by producers Lesley McKimm and Jackie Larkin to produce distinctive and high quality feature films, documentaries and TV dramas with an emphasis on strong, character-driven stories. Credits include the feature films Stella Days (starring Martin Sheen & Stephen Rea, dir. Thaddeus O’Sullivan), Happy Ever Afters (starring Sally Hawkins & Tom Riley, dir. Stephen Burke), Kings (starring Colm Meany, dir. Tom Collins) and the upcoming co-production A Thousand Times Goodnight (starring Juliette Binoche, dir. Erik Poppe).

Current Status We are currently casting the roles of Emily and Arden and offers are out for the role of Robert (Emily’s Father) and the psychiatrist Dr. Golding. The film is currently being considered by a number of international sales agents and by funding agencies in the UK. Aims at the NPP We are looking to fill the gap in the current finance plan.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film The Sound of People (2008).

Kathryn Kennedy

Lesley McKimm

Director Simon Fitzmaurice Producers Kathryn Kennedy, Lesley McKimm Screenwriter Simon Fitzmaurice Based on an original screenplay Languages English Genre Drama Format Red Epic Running time 100 minutes Target audience Arthouse, cine-literate audience with crossover to the teen market

Total budget €2.400.000 Total budget in place €1.100.000 Partners attached Irish Film Board, Co-producer: Garagefilm (Sweden) Present at NPP Kathryn Kennedy, Lesley McKimm

Contact Kathryn Kennedy Kennedy Films 21 Knocklyon Heights, Knocklyon Dublin 16 Ireland +353-87-1219825 Email: kathryn@kennedyfilms.net Tweet: @KFilmsLtd_ Lesley McKimm Newgrange Pictures 25 Hatch Place Dublin 2 Ireland + 353-1-6610086 Email: Lesley@newgrangepictures.com www.newgrangepictures.com 2013 NPP 25

Passing Clouds Wostok (UK), Scala Productions (UK)

A comedy-drama about a 50-something British couple whose second honeymoon aboard the Trans-Siberian Express proves to be the ultimate test of their 25-year marriage.

Bill who prefers trains to people must overcome all his prejudices if he is to be reunited with Ann again. But Ann has other distractions aside from locating her missing husband. Navigating the strange language without Bill’s phrasebook means she must rely on the assistance of the charming and enigmatic Andrey (late 30s).

Ann and Bill’s separate journeys breed in both an itch for something more than their stale routine. Maybe their journey together has come to an end?

However, the scramble to be reunited ignites in each the spark they’d lost. And in finding it within themselves, there’s a chance they may once again find it for one another…

Synopsis Ann and Bill (early 50s) come from a small British town and have been sleepwalking through the last years of their marriage. Now she is more interested in tango, and he in train engines.

Still living in the same house they bought as newly weds, their two grown up children have long since flown the nest. Life seemed easy for the couple and so neither noticed that over the years complaints and disagreements have replaced declarations of love. But when a ‘trip of a lifetime’ forces them to face up to who they’ve become and what their relationship now amounts to, it makes for a bumpy ride, one they may not return from together…

Director’s Statement Passing Clouds is a story I want to share with anyone who’s ever been in a long-term relationship. The resonating truth of a relationship gone stale and the hope it may be turned around – not by magic but by believable emotional beats – is a challenge that holds strong appeal for me.

When Bill presents Ann with two tickets for the Trans-Siberian Express to mark their 25th anniversary, they are faced with a challenge. Ann had dreamed of sun-soaked Spanish beaches, not a seven-day train journey to Vladivostok, but that’s Bill for you. They leave the sleepy English suburb behind them, unsure what the journey will hold. Ann hopes for romance, Bill for an adventure with the object of his affection – trains.

The camera will capture life on board with its adventure, chaos and sometimes emptiness reflecting the mood of our protagonists.

I want to represent the contrast between the confined place in the compartment and the endless landscape outside the window changing from forest to steppes as the train travels from Moscow to Vladivostok.

Shaken out of routine, in an alien culture and crammed into a shared compartment, the couple is soon on a crash course for domestic meltdown. And the root of this? Ann blames Bill for losing her slippers! Fate challenges them further when Bill gets waylaid on a station platform, left stranded, whilst Ann hurtles onwards, aboard the train full of foreign passengers.

26 NPP 2013

Telling such a story against the backdrop of a culture clash of worlds will offer an opportunity for humour. I want the audience to experience the great Trans-Siberian journey through the eyes of Ann and Bill. The film should feel spontaneous and authentic with comedic moments, strange encounters and quirky characters.

Director’s Profile Tatiana Korol is a graduate of the National Film & Television School. She has an international background with close ties to Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine. She was born and raised in Kazakhstan, educated in Germany and acquired both her BA and MA in the UK.

Tatiana has made five short films. Akbulak and Hello My Name Is Olga, were nominated for Royal Society Television awards and screened at numerous prominent festivals (Berlinale, ClermontFerrand, Oberhausen, Edinburgh IFF). Both films were broadcast on ARTE Germany and France.

Tatiana is interested in stories with a quirky charm, humour and humanity, transcending cultures, countries and boundaries.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Jelena Goldbach founded Wostok in 2010 together with her partner Lukas Trimonis. With an international background and close ties to Germany and Russia, Jelena specialises in European co-productions and holds both a BA Honours degree in Arts from Central Saint Martins College as well as a Masters in Film &TV Producing from the National Film & Television School.

As a producer with Scala Productions, Ian Prior’s credits include Ladies in Lavender starring Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith and Street Walker, a Best UK Feature nominee at Raindance, as well as short films which have screened in competition at numerous prestigious international festivals.

Current Status In Development (early draft script).

Aims at the NPP Following on from Moscow Business Square 2013, we wish to continue discussions with prospective Russian partners and meet potential third country European co-producers (where it may be possible to shoot some interiors/exteriors) who have a recent history of working with Russia. Contact with international sales agents and distributors also a priority.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The medium-length film Hello, My Name is Olga (2011).

Tatiana Korol

Ian Prior

Catriona Maclean

Jelena Goldbach

Director Tatiana Korol Producers Jelena Goldbach, Ian Prior Screenwriter Catriona Maclean, Tatiana Korol Based on an original screenplay Languages English/Russian Genre Comedy-Drama Format HD Running time 90-100 minutes

Target audience Fans of quality independent cinema aged 25+, and more mainstream ‘Grey Dollar’ demographic aged 45+ Total budget €1.500.000 (estimated) Total budget in place €361.951 Partners attached BFI Film Fund (UK), MEDIA Present at NPP Jelena Goldbach, Ian Prior, Catriona Maclean

Contact Jelena Goldbach Wostok 10B Cotton Lofts, 124-128 Shacklewell Lane, E8 2EJ London UK +44-79-48376562 Email: info@wostok.co.uk Ian Prior Scala Productions 249 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8QZ UK +44-20-7916 4771 Email: Scaladevelopment@aol.com 2013 NPP 27

Pigs on the Wind Gourounia ston anemo Marni Films (Greece)

How far would you go to move someone to death?

Synopsis Thomas is a 30-year old film director in contemporary Athens, living off his ailing mother’s slim pension. His great talent can only be matched by his infuriating arrogance, so when his first feature film tanks, Thomas finds himself humiliated, friendless and swamped in debt.

His grandiose artistic vision is shared only by his mother and his loser producer, Ponytail Paul. Thomas’ life utterly sucks, until he sees the light in the face of an almighty producer, Max. The thing is, Max isn’t so well-known either in the Hollywood studios or on the arthouse circuit. But he is very well known in a fairly similar field - the meat trade.

In fact, he is the biggest producer of pork meat in Europe and he informs Thomas that his directorial output is about to be highly appreciated by an unusual audience: his farm pigs. They literally become more tender watching the films Max picks for them, and this is why Max needs Thomas to direct the ultimate “pig movie”.

Is this a tacky joke? A scientific revolution? Or a true artistic calling? Because Max, joined by gaunt scientific researchers and an a panel of obese food critics, begins to judge Thomas’ new films by the quality of the pork chops they produce.

Thomas, unable to see beyond his big fat ego will fight with Max, will get fired, will fall out with Paul, and will lose his mother.

Only when he falls in love with a piglet that goes by the name of Margarita, will Thomas - along with the viewer - finally see what was in front of his eyes all along. He will become butcher, filmmaker and animal, only to learn that what makes us human is the ability to look up.

Director’s Statement There is a very fine line between the tragic and the ridiculous and Pigs on the Wind constantly balances on that very thin rope: 28 NPP 2013

around the film’s hilarious central idea grows an allegory so powerful that it might even be misinterpreted. What is the meaning of the artistic creation? Is the audience innocent? And, most importantly, how far can a man go to find his own voice?

At first glance, Pigs on the Wind explores the delicate and savage world of the film industry with a twist. However, this is not just a movie about movies. Greece is in the forefront of a European crisis that challenges the value system established in the 20th century. When Thomas signs his Faustian contract with the all-mighty producer, he has to literally get blood on his hand to earn his living. The core of this surreal comedy lies in this very process, where Thomas will attempt to find out who he really is.

Director’s Profile Stergios Paschos was born in 1985 in Greece. He has written and directed seven short films, while his work has been funded and broadcast by state broadcaster (ERT). He has received multiple awards at festivals and has also worked as a screenwriter and script editor for film and television. Pigs on the Wind is his first feature film and was also selected to participate in the 2013 Script & Pitch Torino Film Lab. Production Company / Producer’s Profile Marni Films is a young independent company, based in Athens, that produces short films, feature films and creative documentaries by filmmakers taking their first steps. The company started out in 2011 as a co-producer of promising local projects, like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps. After producing its first feature documentary, Directing Hell (2011), Marni Films is now developing a number of its own projects. At the same time, the company continues to offer vital help to independent Greek films (A Blast by S. Tzoumerkas and Wednesday 04:45 by Al. Alexiou). The company’s goal is to keep Greek cinema’s new wave alive by delivering innovative productions for cinema, TV and internet platforms. Marni Films’ projects aspire to carry a personal vision and are intended for international audiences.

Phaedra Vokali is a producer at Marni Films and has been granted a scholarship to participate in the EAVE Producers Workshop 2013.

Stergios Paschos

Current Status First draft following participation at the Torino Film Lab. Recently granted development funding by the Greek Film Centre (1st stage, €3.000 out of €25.000).

Aims at the NPP Looking for co-producers and financiers.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film Elvis Is Dead (2013).

Phaedra Vokali

Director Stergios Paschos Producers Phaedra Vokali Screenwriter Stergios Paschos Based on an original screenplay Languages Greek Genre Black comedy Format HD Running time 100 minutes Total budget €990.000 Total budget in place €30.000 Present at NPP Phaedra Vokali, Stergios Paschos

Contact Phaedra Vokali Marni Films 12 Mnisikleous Street 10556, Athens Greece +30-21-03228860 Email: phaedra@marnifilms.gr www.marnifilms.gr 2013 NPP 29

Play Me, Kusturica Pogledaj me, Kusturice

Film House Kiselo Dete (Serbia)

A bitter-sweet, romantic, dreamlike comedy about the meaning of life and art, about dreams, family, friendship, space travel, astrology and grey bears – all the important things in life.

Synopsis Dino works as a telephone pollster who leads a lonely, quiet and very predictable life. But everything is turned upside-down on the day of his 50th birthday. He is approached by his ex-lover Marija.

She informs him that they have a son named Lion who, out of desperation caused by his unfulfilled ambitions as a film director, has attempted suicide.

Marija begs Dino for help. This is her plan. Emir Kusturica, the famous film director, musician, writer and town constructor that Lion admires so much, must see his film, but only on the date that the horoscope, which Marija trusts blindly, has pointed to. But it is extremley hard to get through to Kusturica who builds cities, shoots movies and plays concerts...

But apart from Marija’s astrological deadline, there is another obstacle. Kusturica is in a depression, and is thinking it is maybe better for him to go space travelling...

Director’s Statement The horoscope’s ‘timing deadline’, the full moon, and Dino’s constant running around, are funny metaphors for a man chasing his destiny. The great icon of Balkan and World cinema, Emir Kusturica, is then added to this equation. Since he is not playing himself but a version of his public persona, this image becomes part of the magic. This is a concept of two opposites, one completely mundane and the other an icon. It is not a biography of Emir 30 NPP 2013

Kusturica. His character is developed more along the lines of characters such as Pablo Neruda in the film Il Postino, John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich and Eric Cantona in Looking For Eric.

My intention is to achieve something Aki Kaurismaki is able to do, to forge that uncommon union between social realism and visual stylization, and between dry comedy and warm-hearted humanism.

At the same time I would like to create a film about breaking myths, but also, through the use of humour, to give hope to the spectators during the absurd and crazy journey of our character.

Director’s Profile Uros Tomic, born 1980 in Belgrade. Studied Film and TV Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. As a student he made a sitcom pilot that was a big hit within Serbia and across world media.

He co-founded the Kiselo Dete production company and produced Tilva Rosh, one of the most successful Serbian movies in recent years, nominated for the European Academy Awards (and winner at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and twenty more awards at international festivals). Currently preparing his feature film debut as a director, supported by Ministry of Culture of Serbia.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Film House Kiselo Dete is a film production company in Belgrade, Serbia. It was created in 2008, by three directors – Mina Djukic, Uros Tomic and Nikola Lezaic – united by the desire to make independent fiction and documentary films with both attitude and humour.

Besides our own projects we intend to produce debut films by young directors from Serbia and other countries from the Balkan region and across Europe. Our first feature film production was Tilva Rosh (see above). Our new feature film projects, The Disobedients (in post-production) and Play Me, Kusturica (in pre-production) are both funded by the Serbian Film Centre.

Current Status The project is supported by Serbian Film Centre. The new version of the script was presented at the Moscow co-production forum. In negotiations with French, Russian and German co-producers.

Aims at the NPP To present the project to European producers, sales agents, and funds.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film The Department (Odeljenje) (2013).

Uros Tomic

Nikola Lezaic

Boban Jevtic

Snezana Penev

Director Uros Tomic Producers Nikola Lezaic, Snezana Penev, Uros Tomic Screenwriters Boban Jevtic, Uros Tomic Based on an original screenplay Languages Serbian/French/English/ Spanish/Russian/ Swedish Genre Comedy-Drama Format Arri Alexa Running time 110 minutes Target audience Europe, South America, Russia, both for cinema and festival audience

Total budget â‚Ź1.600.000 Total budget in place â‚Ź300.000 Partners attached Co-producer: Steinpont International (Sweden) Present at NPP Uros Tomic, Snezana Penev

Contact Nikola Lezaic, Uros Tomic Film House Kiselo Dete Dalmatinska 17, 11000 Belgrade Serbia +381-64-3770095/ +381-62-1218861 Email: nikola@kiselodete.com / uros@kiselodete.com www.kiselodete.com 2013 NPP 31

A Quiet Passion Hurricane Films (UK)

Emily Dickinson lived a life of quiet dignity, yet her magnificent poetry captured all the terror and beauty of the world, distilled down to the quintessence of meaning and expression.

Synopsis Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the daughter of Edward Dickinson – a lawyer and politician – and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She was one of three children, a sister Lavinia (Vinnie) and a brother Austin. Despite receiving a good education away from Amherst, she couldn’t bear to be away from home or her family and spent most of her adult life back at her parent’s house. She never married and as she got older became more and more reclusive… very often only speaking to visitors through half open doors or from the landing outside her bedroom.

For Emily the family was the universe, the universe the family. The family was intensely close, almost claustrophobically so, and Vinnie and Austen shared Emily’s morbid attachment to home. When her father Edward Dickinson died, Austin was speechless with grief and Emily retreated to her bedroom for days, unable to accept his death, refusing to even go to the funeral. She died of kidney failure in 1886 aged 56. She is America’s greatest poet - and one of the world’s greatest poets too.

Director’s Statement Throughout her life, Emily Dickinson wrote a poem a day. Yet only a fraction of her output was published during her lifetime - a mere seven poems. Her highly condensed expressiveness she perfected in private and without compromise in the privileged luxury of her secluded world. But these are poems of immense rigour and dignity, profound and hushed meditations on mortality and the 32 NPP 2013

transience of life and beauty, and also a celebration of them. But I do not wish to paint a portrait that is all sombre tension and solitary solace. She was extremely shy, true. But she had a wry, lively sense of humour and loved to laugh or be made to laugh.

And she loved the soirees and balls, which began each commencement of the university year. Her friendships were intense but it was within the family that she found her greatest happiness. It was the wellspring of her art.

Director’s Profile Terence Davies is one of cinema’s most respected auteurs. His first feature Distant Voices, Still Lives won the Cannes International Critics Prize, the Locarno Golden Leopard Award and Critics Prizes at Toronto, LA and in the UK. His subsequent features won many international prizes. Most recently, Rachel Weisz won the New York Critics Circle Best Actress award for Deep Blue Sea. Filmography: Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), The Long Day Closes (1992), The Neon Bible (1996), House of Mirth (2000), Of Time and the City (2008), Deep Blue Sea (2010) Production Company / Producer’s Profile Hurricane Films is owned and run by partners Solon Papadopoulos (multi-award winning documentary filmmaker, including six RTS awards) and Roy Boulter (ex-drummer with The Farm, turned television scriptwriter). The company’s first feature film Under the Mud was written over a three-year period in collaboration with a group of teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds and was eventually received enthusiastically at film festivals across the world, with Hurricane winning a major European mentoring award for their work developing the film.

In 2008, Sol and Roy invited one of Britain’s greatest living auteurs, Terence Davies, to make his first documentary feature (the film was also his first in eight years). Of Time and the City is a ‘visual poem’, a meditation on the director’s relationship with his home city Liverpool, and was selected for the 2008 Cannes Film Festival (and to numerous subsequent festivals) to huge critical acclaim. It was named in Time Magazine’s top ten films of the year and also won the highly prestigious New York Critics Circle non-fiction film of the year.

AN INDEPENDENT FEATURE FILM FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE

Terence Davies

Solon Papadopoulos

A Quiet Passion A QUIET PASSION INFORMATION MEMORANDUM

Hurricane is currently in pre-production with another Davies project Sunset Song (Shooting Autumn ’13) with Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn attached to play the lead roles.

Current Status Final draft delivered. Main cast attached. Budget and schedule completed. Sales agent and distributor interest.

Aims at the NPP To seek potential European co-producers, sales agents and distributors.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The documentary Of Time and the City (2008).

Roy Boulter

Director Terence Davies Producers Solon Papadopoulos, Roy Boulter Screenwriter Terence Davies Based on an original screenplay Languages English Genre Drama Format HD Running time 120 minutes Target audience art house followers, people interested in Emily Dickinson poetry.

Total budget €4.600.000 Total budget in place €146.570 Present at NPP Roy Boulter

Contact Solon Papadopoulos & Roy Boulter Hurricane Films 17 Hope Street Liverpool 1 UK +44-151-7079700 Email: roy@hurricanefilms.co.uk www.hurricanefilms.net 2013 NPP 33

Scrappers!

A Northern Western Schrotten! Ein Northern Western Tamtam Film (Germany)

In order to save their late father’s junkyard from ruin, the orderly Mirko and his criminal half-brother Letscho have to put Dad’s last plan into action: to stage a train robbery.

Synopsis The well-order life of building inspector Mirko (mid-thirties) falls apart after he is picked up by a pair of thugs at his working place and delivered to a provincial town nearby.

In an instant, Mirko finds himself at his father’s funeral - and is forced to come to terms with his heritage. As the new and involuntary head of family, Mirko must help his raffish tribe to keep their scrapyard which is about to be sacked by the city’s authorities and its slick representative Bernhard Engels.

And as if this wasn’t bad enough, Mirko’s half-brother Letscho, uneducated yet streetwise, doesn’t accept Mirko’s presence and starts his own feud. Since only a well-planned train robbery can save the yard, the two brothers have to combine their skills, forget their differences and finally act like a real family.

Director’s Statement There is an alien culture in my hometown of Celle, existing only just within recognizable normality. It’s the world of the ‘Schrottis’ (scrap-dealers) who are blighted with a very bad reputation and have deliberately distance themselves from the middle classes.

The Schrottis’ struggle for survival got worse in the recent past because of the increasing interest of the local authorities in scrap metals, and new taxes and laws have made it impossible for many scrap dealers to continue their traditional business.

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The city versus the Schrottis – it is more like a fight between the native Americans and the superior settlers. Which is why the idea of a ‘Northern Western’ was born.

Through the character of Mirko - the stranger in town - I will show the cultural misunderstandings inherent within this world, as well as its characteristics and existential problems, in a humorous yet authentic way. Following the structure of the classic Western I want to make the spectator understand the value of saving this threatened culture.

Director’s Profile Max Zähle was born in Celle in 1977. Since 2004 he has worked as a freelance film editor and director of various commercials, video clips and short features. Between 2008-2010 he studied Directing at Hamburg Media School (M.A.). His graduation short feature Raju, which was entirely shot in India in 2010, won the Student Academy Award in 2011 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Tamtam Film was founded in 2012 by producers Andrea Schütte and Dirk Decker who have each been working in the film industry for the past decade. The company’s pivotal objective is to develop and produce character-driven films of all genres with strong and exceptional protagonists, targeting international cinematic audiences - premium features, entertaining and demanding in equal measure. Setting a high creative standard, Tamtam prides itself on being a fair and trustworthy partner for upcoming as well as established talents.

Current Status We are financing the film with a broadcaster (NDR) and funds are already attached. We are about to decide on creative heads and cast and we are currently approaching distributor and sales agents.

Aims at the NPP We’re looking for partners in all fields of production and exploitation.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film Raju (2010).

Max Zähle

Dirk Decker

Andrea Schütte

Oliver Keidel

Director Max Zähle Producers Andrea Schütte, Dirk Decker Screenwriters Oliver Keidel, Max Zähle Based on an original screenplay Languages German Genre Comedy/Western Format HD Running time 100 minutes Target audience Male/Female: 19-49 Total budget €1.800.000 Total budget in place €800.000

Partners attached NDR, FFHSH, Nordmedia, MEDIA Present at NPP Andrea Schütte, Dirk Decker

Contact Andrea Schütte, Dirk Decker Tamtam Film GmbH Bahrenfelder Straße 229F 22765 Hamburg Germany +49-40-38089999 Email: mail@tamtamfilm.com www.tamtamfilm.com 2013 NPP 35

Abalone Wars Helden van de Perlemoenoorlogen

Buzzmedia Network (The Netherlands)

Three men struggle to save the unique Hawston fishing community in South Africa from the mayhem caused by China’s demand for abalone, a marine snail prized as an aphrodisiac.

Synopsis Abalone Wars follows a crucial period in the lives of three mixedrace men: a poor fisherman, the skipper of an abalone poaching boat, and a marine enforcement officer. All three are Afrikaansspeaking ‘coloured’ men from the traditional fishing community of Hawston on the picturesque Overberg coast, east of Cape Town.

The rugged coastline is also the breeding ground of an endangered marine snail, Haliotis midae, commonly known as abalone or perlemoen. Due to the combined effects of a long recession, work scarcity, commercial overfishing and environmental legislation, the community now relies on abalone poaching as its principal means of survival.

Recently, in an effort to save the species from extinction, the government imposed a total ban on illegal abalone harvesting with a strict ‘shoot-to-kill’ enforcement policy. Now, the abalone trade is a high-stakes, multimillion dollar, black market racket run by Chinese crime syndicates, corrupt government officials and local gangs that trade abalone for drugs and guns.

Substance abuse and violence are tearing the community apart.

Abalone symbolises the threat to the community from the outside and the destruction of lives from within. We follow the men on land, sea, and underwater, as they tread the thin line between survival and destruction, life and death: of the abalone, and of the people.

The abalone poachers dive daily in shark-infested waters, dodging 36 NPP 2013

the Great White Shark, as well as law enforcers with high-tech pursuit boats. They are constantly faced with the risk of being arrested, injured, or even killed, while living out what they believe to be their destiny: to take their daily bread from the sea.

The million-dollar question is: Who faces the gravest threat - the abalone or Hawston’s unique community?

Director’s Statement I want to make a documentary that immerses the viewer in the world of this marginalised community and let them tell their stories in their own colourful way. The visual style will resemble the TimeLife photojournalism of the 40s: stark, iconic images shot on 35mm lenses. I will use the intimate, poetic narrative style of Ryszard Kapuscinski, one of the most important chroniclers of the ‘dirty little wars’ of the African continent in the closing decades of the 20th century.

The suspense arc: we know, from the beginning, who are the hunters and who are the hunted. We follow them as they prepare to go to sea, while at sea, and with their loved ones in their community, and we dread what might become of them in the days ahead.

The dominant tone will be cautiously optimistic, but only fate can determine the outcome of each character’s unique story.

Director’s Profile Heinrich Dahms was born in South Africa in 1954. He graduated with a BA Honours in Political Philosophy and Film, and entered the film industry as a documentary director/cameraman in 1981.

He has since written, directed and/or produced commercials, documentaries, TV dramas and five feature films: City Wolf (Atlas International, 1987), Dune Surfer (Heyns Films, 1989), My Daughter’s Keeper (aka Au Pair) (Miramax, 1993), and two award-winning Dutch language art-house films, Overleven (Surviving, 2007) and Schoft (Scum, 2009). He is currently based in Hilversum, The Netherlands.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Michèle Aimé and Heinrich Dahms’ Buzzmedia Network has developed and produced numerous cinema and TV dramas, documentaries, commercials and educational films. In 1980 Michèle worked on a series of anti-apartheid films based on Nadine

Gordimer’s short stories, and then on the award-winning thirteenpart drama series Verspeelde Lente (RSA, 1982). Michèle went on to produce numerous social documentaries, including A Man No Less (about paraplegics in Soweto) and The Word For Soweto (about the dialectics of tribal and Western religions in Soweto).

In 1996 Buzzmedia Network produced and directed ten documentaries with best-selling business authors in the USA and in 2008-2009 produced and directed web clips for non-profit organisations and advocacy groups.

Since 2006, Buzzmedia Network has produced two award-winning Dutch-language feature films, the coming-of-age drama, Overleven (2007) and a second fiction film, Schoft (Scum) (2009), with the themes of random violence and racism.

Current Status Final stages of development. Principal photography begins in South Africa in January 2014.

Aims at the NPP Buzzmedia Network’s aim is to extend its network and collaborate with international broadcasters, financiers, distributors, television and theatrical sales agents on the documentary Abalone Wars.

Heinrich Dahms

Michèle Aimé

Director Heinrich Dahms Producer Michèle Aimé Screenwriter Heinrich Dahms Based on an original screenplay Languages Afrikaans/English Genre Documentary Format HD Running time 90 minutes Target audience Mixed audience 16-35 and art-house circuit 4565 age group.

Total budget €258.000 Total budget in place €198.000

Partners attached Netherlands Film Fund, Visual Antics, VAF, Evangelische Omroep, CoBO Fund, Cinema Delicatessen Present at NPP Michèle Aimé, Heinrich Dahms

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film Schoft (Scum) (2009).

Contact Michèle Aimé Buzzmedia Network Van Leeuwenhoekstraat 44 1221AH Hilversum The Netherlands +31-35-7725225 Email: info@buzzmedia.net www.buzzmedia.net 2013 NPP 37

Eisenstein in Guanajato Submarine (The Netherlands)

Filmmaker Eisenstein (33) travels to Mexico in 1931 to consider a film. He falls in love with his guide. They spend ten sensuous days together - ten days that shook Eisenstein.

Synopsis The venerated filmmaker Eisenstein is comparable in talent, insight and wisdom with the likes of Shakespeare or Beethoven; there are few, if any, directors who can be elevated to such heights. On the back of his revolutionary film Battleship Potemkin he was celebrated around the world and invited to the US. Ultimately rejected by Hollywood and maliciously maligned by conservative Americans, Eisenstein travelled to Mexico in 1931 to consider a film privately funded by American pro-Communist sympathizers. Eisenstein’s sensual Mexican experience appears to have been pivotal in his life and film career – a significant hinge between the early successes of Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, which made him a world-renowned figure, and his hesitant later career with Alexander Nevsky, Ivan The Terrible and The Boyars Plot.

Travelling to see the celebrated Museum of the Dead in Guanajuato, with a view to filming it, Eisenstein intends spending just a few days in this beautiful town. Bruised by his American experiences, aware of antagonism towards him in an ever-growing Stalinist Soviet Russia, homesick, lonely, and still reeling from the heavy polemic responsibilities of his Russian films, he is confronted with new ways of mythological thinking, far removed from European traditions. He discovers early 20th century ideas around the myth of the noble savage, the myth of the innocent life, and the raw realities of physical love and death. He is deeply shaken by what he finds.

Against this backdrop, susceptible to the tender friendships of his 38 NPP 2013

Mexican associates, and increasingly conscious of the past pain suffered by Mexicans under first the Spanish and then the Americans, he falls in love with a married Mexican. Eisenstein spends ten sensuous days – days he marked off one by one - in the city, that change him deeply, both emotionally and spiritually.

Director’s Statement I have long admired Eisenstein – as a radical and also a very practical filmmaker, as a film teacher and as a film-thinker and writer. I made a personal discovery of Eisenstein when I was seventeen. By accident I saw the Eisenstein feature film Strike, made in 1925. I was amazed at the strength, violence and sophistication of the film.

It is intended to make this a ‘feature film as essay’, a discursive consideration of Eisenstein’s significant love affair as it happens, with a view of who he was, where he came from and where he will be going. There will be reconstructed drama but there will also be critical commentary. Eisenstein was very much a director-editor and the film will essentially be an editor’s film, highly and imaginatively edited making full use of Eisenstein montage thinking and practice.

Director’s Profile Peter Greenaway was born in Wales and educated in London. He trained as a painter, and started making his own films in 1966. He has continued to make cinema in a great variety of ways. He has regularly been nominated for the festival competitions of Cannes, Venice and Berlin. His first feature film, The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), received enormous critical acclaim and established him internationally as one of the most original and important filmmakers of our times, a reputation consolidated by the films The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Pillow-Book and most recently by Nightwatching.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Submarine is an Amsterdam-based production house that develops and produces feature films, documentaries, animation and transmedia productions. Submarine has established itself as an innovative company, mixing traditional and interactive storytelling, all with an international focus. The company works with directors who explore the boundaries of the moving image, with renowned talent such as Peter Greenaway and Tommy Pallotta as well as with young

Peter Greenaway

and upcoming talent. Submarine co-produces most of its films, animation and transmedia productions with broadcasters, distributors and publishers from around Europe and the United States.

Submarine was founded in 2000 by Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix.

Current Status Financing.

Aims at the NPP Seeking financial support and co-producers.

Bruno Felix

Femke Wolting

Director Peter Greenaway Producers Femke Wolting, Bruno Felix Screenwriter Peter Greenaway Based on an original screenplay Languages English, Spanish, Russian Genre Love Story Format HD Running time 110 minutes Target audience Primary: art house audience, especially educated, urban women, 30+ Secondary: highly educated, urban gay men, 25+, and students

Total budget â‚Ź2.721.928 Total budget in place â‚Ź719.750 Sales Company Rezo Film Partners attached Netherlands Film Fund, broadcaster VPRO, Paloma Negra, Potemkino, Climax Films, Rija Films Present at NPP Femke Wolting, Bruno Felix

Contact Femke Wolting, Bruno Felix Submarine Rapenburgerstraat 109 1011 VL Amsterdam The Netherlands +31-20-3301226 Email: info@submarine.nl www.submarine.nl 2013 NPP 39

Exotic Pictures Babibutafilm (Indonesia), Lemming Film (The Netherlands)

Indonesia and The Netherlands have a long history, but no one talks about it. In this film, Edwin wants to explore this relationship through history, war, sex and desire.

Synopsis Bali, 1940. Jan and Anne are a Dutch couple, born in the Dutch East Indies which they call home. Jan is a totok (full-blooded) Dutch, the heir to a plantation estate. His wife Anne is an Indo (mixed blood), of Dutch and Javanese descent. They live a life of luxury in the tropics on their lush plantation, in a large mansion, with many servants.

Jan manages the plantation while Anne stays at home sewing, drinking tea, and caring for her gardens. She enjoys watching Pri (20), their pribumi (native) driver and steward, his brown skin glistening with sweat, with his bare chest and muscular arms, skillfully climbing a tall coconut tree to pluck coconuts.

One day Jan comes across a crowd of men gathered in the town square, mesmerized by a trance-like performance by a beautiful pribumi girl, Sita (20). She is dancing nearly naked, her body shaking, accompanied by beautiful, frantic gamelan music. Jan feels an overwhelming lust towards her but feels it is below a Dutch man to feel such desire for a pribumi woman.

This marks the beginning of a web of lust where the four protagonists embark upon journeys of solidarity and survival, which take them through the last years of Dutch occupation to the arrival of the Japanese. With the birth of an independent Indonesia comes chaos and confusion. Pri and Anne are left alone in the world while the lives of Jan and Sita are threatened by a mob of ‘freedom fighters’.

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On December 5th 1957, President Soekarno calls for all Dutch nationals to immediately leave Indonesia. Anne sets foot for the first time on Dutch soil, land of her ancestors. It is January and the winter is bitter. Pri puts his jacket around Anne, who still wears her kebaya and kain.

Director’s Statement Looking through photographs of the Netherlands Indies era, I sensed a sort of delusion among both the Dutch and Indonesians, perhaps because colonialism and exploitation were the daily reality for so many generations. These distractions and compensations often conceal an abusive relationship. When conflict began to erupt in post-independence Indonesia, and masses of Dutch and Eurasians were forcefully evacuated, many could only deal with the separation in silence. The displaced were heartbroken but determined to start a new chapter, carrying on with the dream of life, while suppressing the reality of painful memories.

The visual feeling of this film celebrates sexuality, an ode to erotica. Just like delusion and denial, here is another form of hypocrisy. Sexuality is often stigmatised by the same system that condones colonialism and capitalism. While all these ideas represent the same relationship of lust and power, some contribute to humanity more than others.

Director’s Profile Edwin was born in Surabaya, Indonesia. In 2005 one of his short films Kara, Daughter of a Tree became the first Indonesian short ever screened in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. His debut feature Blind Pig who Wants to Fly (2008) premiered at the Busan Film Festival in Korea and went on to screen in many other festivals where it won numerous prizes. In 2012, Edwin became the first Indonesian filmmaker to have a film in competition at the Berlinale with Postcards from the Zoo. The film has been released in Germany and other territories.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Established in 1995, Lemming Film is one of the leading Dutch film and television production companies based in Amsterdam, with a proven track record in delivering quality commercial film

Edwin

and television productions. It produces children, teen and family features as well as international arthouse features.

Lorna Tee (Babibutafilm) is a producer/film festival consultant from Malaysia who divides her time between Asia and Europe. She sits on the advisory of CineMart (IFFR), Busan IFF, HK Asian Film Awards, Shanghai IFF and other film festivals. She is also the Asian representative of Back Up Media Group, a Paris-based film and television financing company. Her producing credits include My Beautiful Washing Machine, The Shoe Fairy, Rain Dogs, Crazy Stone, Love Story, I’ll Call You, My Mother Is A Bellydancer, At the End of Daybreak, Lover’s Discourse, Come Rain Come Shine and Postcards from the Zoo. Current Status In development.

Aims at the NPP Searching for co-producers and potential financers.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film Postcards from the Zoo (2012).

Eva Eisenloeffel

Lorna Tee

Director Edwin Producers Lorna Tee, Eva Eisenloeffel, Leontine Petit Screenwriter Edwin Based on an original screenplay Languages Indonesian/Dutch/ Japanese Genre Period/Erotic/Drama Running time 90 minutes Target audience Arthouse Total budget €1.200.000 Total budget in place €20.000

Partners attached Pallas Film, Germany (Co-producer) Present at NPP Eva Eisenloeffel, Edwin

Contact Eva Eisenloeffel Lemming Film Valschermkade 36 F 1059 CD Amsterdam The Netherlands +31-20-6610424 Email: Eva@lemmingfilm.com www.lemmingfilm.com 2013 NPP 41

The Fear of God Afgod

Shooting Star Filmcompany / Screenpartners (The Netherlands) The beliefs of a cynical undercover detective are challenged after he infiltrates a community of Jehovah Witnesses, hoping to extract a confession from a killer who is hiding there.

he starts to lose his grip on reality. Carlo panics when he finds out that detectives are questioning some of his relatives. Bob offers him money to flee, hoping Carlo will confess to him then.

After Carlo unexpectedly disappears Bob receives a text message from him, urging a meeting, but when Bob arrives Carlo has hanged himself in the woods. It seemed that Carlo’s new-found spirituality was real. Bob realizes he can’t go back to being a detective. The indoctrination by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the tensions and the fears, have made him a different man...

Synopsis The police receive a tip that Carlo, a suspect in a series of gruesome murders, is hiding out in a small town and has joined a local community of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Bob, a cynical but passionate detective, is asked to infiltrate the community to elicit a confession from Carlo during a taped conversation.

Director’s Profile Simon de Waal is one of most popular Dutch thriller and screenwriters. Since he began writing around 1990, he has written more than 150 episodes for all major police series on tv, such as Baantjer, Grijpstra & De Gier, Russen, Spangen and Unit 13. He also wrote and co-wrote several feature films, including Lek, Pizzamaffia and Kapitein Rob. The past four years he has written the successful book series De Waal & Baantjer. All eight of these books were in the bestselling top 10.

Bob is immediately surprised by the warm and hospitable welcome he receives from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are not asking about his past, because who are they to judge? All that matters is his future and personal salvation.

In 2012 he directed Cop vs Killer, a TV movie based on his book by the same name, with the late Jeroen Willems and Marcel Hensema in the lead. Willems won a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival for his unforgettable role as Mirko, the killer with a heart.

Carlo contacts Bob and a bond is established, as hoped for. They have long and deep conversations in his wired trailer in a dreary abandoned camping in the woods and Carlo confesses he has done terrible things, but when Bob asks what, he evades the subject. Carlo seems to have been converted by the Jehovahs, but Bob suspects he is still a psychopath.

Besides writing, Simon has a totally different job – working as a detective-sergeant in Amsterdam’s homicide division.

Meanwhile the Witnesses are like a warm bath to Bob, whose life up to now has only consisted of death and violence. They bring food and clothes to his caravan and he befriends Sandra, a Jehovah’s widow.

They become secret lovers.

The undercover operation, planned for three weeks, goes on for months and solitude of the operation, the depressing location, the lack of sleep and Carlo’s unpredictability, take their toll on Bob and 42 NPP 2013

Production Company / Producer’s Profile In 1987 Dave Schram, Maria Peters and Hans Pos join together to start their own production company: Shooting Star Filmcompany.

The Amsterdam-based company drew international attention with the renowned period drama and Academy Award nominee Daens by Stijn Coninx. From there on Shooting Star continued with considerable success. They produce Jeroen Krabbé’s debut Left Luggage (1997) and several successful youth films by Maria Peters. Together, The Purse Snatcher, Little Crumb and two Pietje Bell adventures attracted more than three million visitors. From 2007 Shooting Star produced six successful adaptations of the popular Carry Slee books and in 2012 Maria Peters’ book adaptation Sonny

Simon de Waal

Maria Peters and Dave Schram

Boy was selected as the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards.

Over the years many Shooting Star Films received national and international awards, amongst which were a Crystal Bear (The Purse Snatcher) and two Gryphon Awards (Regret! and Mike Says Goodbye).

Current Status The script is now in development with a Los Angeles-based script coach.

Aims at the NPP To find co-producers, international distributors and / or interested parties in a local remake of the film.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film Cop vs Killer (2012).

Director Simon de Waal Producers Maria Peters, Dave Schram, Simon de Waal Screenwriter Simon de Waal Based on an original screenplay Languages Dutch or English Genre Psychological thriller Format 1:185 Arri Alexa 4K Running time 90 minutes Target audience 12+

Total budget €2.200.000 (estimate) Total budget in place €510.000 Sales Agent Shooting Star Filmdistribution Partners attached Netherlands Film Fund Present at NPP Simon de Waal, Dave Schram

Contact Maria Peters, Dave Schram Shooting Star Prinsengracht 546 1017 KK Amsterdam The Netherlands + 31-20-6247272 Email: info@shootingstar.nl www.shootingstar.nl Simon de Waal Screenpartners bv Jan ter Gouwweg 159 1412 DA Naarden The Netherlands + 31-35-6783300 Email: info@screenpartners.com www.screenpartners.com 2013 NPP 43

La Holandesa Smarthouse Films (The Netherlands)

What happens to a woman when her desire to be a mother cannot be fulfilled?

Synopsis Maud (40) has only one desire in life: to become a mother. Even though medical experts told her that she never will, she can’t let go of her dream.

Frank (43) tries to save her and their fragile relationship by taking Maud to Chile to focus on the future. But he discovers that Maud is in denial and still believes she can have children, when she tries to hide another miscarriage from him. He can’t bear seeing her destroying herself and they get into a huge fight.

This is when Maud runs off and sets out on a road trip through Chile, where she loses her grip on herself and reality. In her desperation she invents Messi, an 8-year-old boy who keeps her company and acts as her conscience.

But during her trip from the freezing Southern mountains to the sweltering Northern deserts of Chile, she comes to terms with herself and realises that life is beautiful as it is.

Director’s Statement La Holandesa is a remarkable type of road movie in which Maud is on the road with herself, looking for herself. I want to be as close to her as possible, to capture everything she feels, lives and dreams.

Therefore, I will shoot most of the film on steadicam. This will create the possibility to follow her closely without ending up in a predictable ‘shot - counter shot’ decoupage.

Landscape - gritty, cold and rough in the South and warm, radiant and beautiful in the North - will act as a character in itself, reflecting Maud’s mood. Throughout the film the beauty of nature and the surroundings are in contrast with the chaos and drama present at that moment in Maud’s life. Lighting is natural and realistic, as the Chilean light in spring will be. The interiors will be beautifully dark, never raw nor gritty.

Director’s Profile Joost van Ginkel (1971, The Netherlands) produced his first short 44 NPP 2013

film Sand (2008) by himself. Sand was selected for the 2008 Venice Film Festival, won 13 international awards and was the Dutch submission for the Academy Award Best Live Action Short. His second short film Kiss (2009), was selected for the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. His first feature film, 170 Hz (2011) was nominated for Best Actress, Best Sound Design and won the YouthMovieSquad Award and the Audience Award at the 2011 Netherlands Film Festival. 170 Hz was also selected for the Busan International Film Festival.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile “Smarthouse is commercial arthouse – and vice versa. Smarthouse embraces music, arts and graphic design and brings them together into the world of film making, serving a global audience.”

Smarthouse Films is an Amsterdam-based production company specialising in feature films, documentaries and branded films. Our work crosses over genres and themes; our filmmakers push the creative brief to the limits but never over the edge.

Founder Danielle Guirguis has been involved in films as Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book, Reinout Oerlemans’ Komt een vrouw bij de dokter, Antoinette Beumer’s De gelukkige huisvrouw, Maria Peters’ De groeten van Mike and Dave Schram’s Razend and Spijt.

Smarthouse nurtures a pool of talented directors as part of the Smarthouse Branded Films division. Here the directors can hone their skills allowing them to use those experiences in making the unique feature films that fit the Smarthouse brief.

Current Status La Holandesa originated in the short film Undertow that Daan Gielis wrote and Danielle Guirguis produced. The script was developed at the Script & Pitch Torino Film Lab and supported by the Netherlands Film Fund. Shooting is planned for Autumn 2014.

Aims at the NPP To find a (European) co-producer and a sales agent.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The feature film 170 Hz (2011).

SMARTHOUSE FILMS presents

la holandesa director: Joost van Ginkel | writer: Daan Gielis

Joost van Ginkel

Daan Gielis

Danielle Guirguis

Director Joost van Ginkel Producer Danielle Guirguis Screenwriter Daan Gielis Based on an original screenplay Languages Dutch/Spanish Genre Drama/Road movie Format RED Running time 85 minutes Target audience Female 35 -55 Total budget â‚Ź800.000 Total budget in place â‚Ź50.000

Partners attached Netherlands Film Fund Present at NPP Danielle Guirguis, Joost van Ginkel, Daan Gielis

Contact Danielle Guirguis Smarthouse Films Herengracht 174 1016 BR Amsterdam The Netherlands +31-20-3419469 Email: info@smarthousefilms.nl www.smarthousefilms.nl 2013 NPP 45

Monk Viking Film (The Netherlands)

The family of hypochondriac Monk (13) is about to collapse but its members nevertheless travel to Spain together to say goodbye to a dying relative.

Synopsis Hypochondriac Monk (13) tries frenetically to hold his troubled family together. While his extremely rebellious sister Joni (15) makes the lives of the others a misery, his father Fabian (47) suffers from severe depression, and his mother Maria (44), once a flamboyant Spanish girl but now totally burnt out, tries to rediscover her inner strength at a local flamenco class.

Monk tries to keep the disintegrating family together in vain. No one listens to him or to anyone else in the family and they’re all fed up with each other.

Then Maria receives an urgent and distressing phone call from Spain. Her brother, Esteban, suffers from HIV and has now contracted double pneumonia that will undoubtedly be the end of him. Overcome by sorrow Maria decides to leave for Barcelona the very next morning to be in time to say goodbye to her brother. And everyone has to come with her.

Their individual struggles, crises and fears reach a climax during the trip. At the French border Monk is caught with a bag full of medication and therefore his hypochondria is revealed. In a dirty and smelly toilet Joni finds out that she’s pregnant after having been deflowered coldly in the dressing room at the gym. Fabian can’t handle the abundance of sunlight and reality, and Maria… after losing her husband and herself Maria is about to lose her brother too.

It is this confrontation with themselves that eventually forces them to look at one other. They become aware that they are not the only 46 NPP 2013

people on earth with fears and problems. And they also realise that, whether they like it or not, they have to rely on each other as a family during this trip.

Director’s Statement The subject matter of Monk is universal: family ties (within a modern family), love, beauty and passion - but also fear, depression and death. These themes appeal strongly to me and they are part of my personal life too, but what I fell for most of all was the original way in which screenwriter Roosmarijn developed them. Seldom has a (Dutch) script managed to surprise and affect me so strongly. It mocks the extreme way in which we are focused on ourselves these days, but in a very compassionate way. That is why the story is not mere satire - it also offers consolation.

I admire Roosmarijn very much for her ability of staging characters that - despite their extreme behaviour - are personalities instead of odd characters, and how she manages to turn a heavy subject into a likely story about family in an original and cinematic way.

The atmosphere and the colours evoked by the script, the tone, the high-spirited environment it is set in (unafraid of drama and conflict) and the fact that the story is about a (young) family, make this film my ideal debut.

We want to make an accessible and warm film with biting humour for an adult cinema audience that likes (European) art-house films.

Director’s Profile Ties Schenk graduated in 2005 from the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. With her two graduation films, which were also broadcast by VPRO television, she won two important television awards at Cinekid (Golden and Jury Award), that she would win for later television productions as well. In 2007 she made the touching television film Dag in dag uit. In recent years Ties directed a lot of youth drama series, developing her skills. She, among others, directed Docklands, Donkeygirl, Strong Stories from Zoutvloed, and co-directed the young adult series How to Survive that was nominated for a Rose d’Or. Production Company / Producer’s Profile Viking Film is the Amsterdam-based film production company founded in 2011 by Marleen Slot. International in scope, Viking Film

Ties Schenk

wants to make high-quality films for both Dutch and international audiences with a special focus on arthouse, children films and animation films. Viking Film wants to be cross-border and intends to enter into co-operation with producers and makers from Europe, Latin America and Asia.

At this moment Viking Film is working on several films like Zurich from director Sacha Polak (selected for Berlinale Residency) and Bull Down! by Gabriel Mascaro. Besides that Viking Film recently finished the co-production Leones (selected for Venice Film Festival 2012) by Argentine director Jazmin Lopez and the stopmotion film Goodbye Mister de Vries (Mascha Halberstad). The feature documentary New Boobs (Sacha Polak), television films At Sea (Marinus Groothof) and Resistance (Rob Lücker) and the short film Chauffeur (Guido van Driel) will all premier during the Netherlands Film Festival.

Marleen worked as a producer at Lemming Film for many years.

She is part of EAVE and ACE. In 2013 she was selected Producer on the Move during the Cannes Film Festival.

Current Status We are developing the script and will start the production financing in the upcoming months.

Aims at the NPP We are looking forward to meeting co-producers especially from Southern Europe and France and to present the project to an international audience.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The short film Donkeygirl (2007).

Marleen Slot

Roosmarijn Roos Rosa de Carvalho

Director Ties Schenk Producer Marleen Slot Screenwriter Roosmarijn Roos Rosa de Carvalho Based on an original screenplay Languages Dutch Genre (Melo-)dramatic comedy and road movie Format HD Running time 90 minutes Target audience 25 - 45 years Total budget €1.000.000 Total budget in place €12.000 development money

Partners attached Netherlands Film Fund Present at NPP Marleen Slot, Roosmarijn Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Ties Schenk

Contact Marleen Slot Viking Film Lindengracht 17 1015 KB Amsterdam The Netherlands +31-20-625 4788 infro: marleen@vikingfilm.nl www.vikingfilm.nl 2013 NPP 47

Witch Of The Fens De Moerheks

Fu Works (The Netherlands)

1918. According to the legend a witch lives in a swamp near the village of Alvergom.

When the Spanish flu hits the village, the people consider it to be a curse from ‘the Witch of the Fens’.

Synopsis It is 1918, the final year of the First World War, in the little village of Alvergom near the Belgium border. According to the legend there is a witch living in the nearby swamp. So when the Spanish flu hits the village, the people consider it to be a curse from ‘the Witch of the Fens’.

Timid Aron (14) lives alone with his father after his mother became one of the flu’s victims. After her death he withdraws from everyday life and develops countless fears. But his life changes when he meets the mysterious Lena at the swamp. Aron falls in love for the first time.

When the villagers see Lena, however, they believe her to be the feared witch and Aron must do everything he can to save her.

An exciting, adventurous youth film about overcoming fear.

Director’s Statement The Witch of the Fens is a magical realist feature film that we experience through Aron’s eyes. His story takes place in two worlds: the village and the surrounding swamp. The village is strongly linked to his father’s scientific worldview, and the swamp to his mother’s magical realism.

The magical realism within the film should not be confused with the fantasy genre. Near Aron’s house there are no trolls, fairies or elves. The magic is in how Aron looks at what is actually in front of him. Just as one can perceive different shapes in the clouds, Aron 48 NPP 2013

will observe a variety of creatures in his surroundings. The swamp reflects Aron’s own mood, the world adjusts to his perspective.

When he is afraid, his environment makes him fearful. If he is unhappy, the world weighs heavily on his shoulders. If he believes the Witch of the Fens exists, then he will see her in wreathes of mist, in the fire and in animals in the swamp.

Director’s Profile The young and talented director Thijs Schreuder (1983) graduated in 2009 from the Dutch Film Academy. With his graduation film The Roar of the Lion he won the ‘Wildcard documentary’ of the Netherlands Film Fund. Since then Thijs has directed commercials, short films and documentaries. His short documentary When the War Ends won the debut prize at the Netherlands Film Festival. The Witch of the Fens is his feature film debut.

Production Company / Producer’s Profile Fu Works was founded in 1995 and has grown into one of the leading feature film production companies of The Netherlands. It is an independent and internationally-oriented production company that produces feature films, documentaries and TV series. Fu Works has produced several feature films, such as the successful Süskind, Tirza (Dutch entry Academy Awards), Winter in Wartime (shortlist best foreign film Academy Awards), Spy of Orange, Love is All, Black Book (shortlist best foreign film Academy Awards), Costa!, Phileine Says Sorry, Too Fast Too Furious and In Orange. The company is not only interested in films with a wider audience appeal, but has also produced documentaries like Parradox, 4 Elements and Made In Korea and special projects like Her Majesty, Carmen of the North, Kicks and Jade Warrior. Supporting young talent is an important goal of the company.

Current Status In development. Treatment just delivered. Crowdfunding campaign: August 22th - September 30th.

Aims at the NPP We are producing this project using ‘the World-Building principle’, an innovative way to develop both the script and visual story-world at the same time. World-Building is the new metaphor for the digital

design and iteration process to create and actualize the story space in digital narrative media. We hope to find interested international co-production partners who want to join this innovative, renewing project and help us to develop, finance and realize it.

Previous work available on Festival Scope The documentary When the War Ends (2011).

Thijs Schreuder

San Fu Maltha

Els Rientjes

Karen van Horst Pellekaan

Director Thijs Schreuder Producers San Fu Maltha, Els Rientjes Screenwriter Karen van Holst Pellekaan Language Dutch Genre Adventure/Youth Format HD Running time 100 minutes Target audience 12-16 Total budget â‚Ź2.800.000 Total budget in place â‚Ź15.000 Present at NPP San Fu Maltha, Thijs Schreuder

Contact San Fu Maltha Fu Works Rapenburgerstraat 109 1011 VL Amsterdam The Netherlands +31-20-5307111 info: sanne@fuworks.nl www.fuworks.nl 2013 NPP 49

BERGMANS VIDEO NPP 2012

45 MINUTES TO RAMALLAH NPP 2011

Previous Departures from NPP (as of August 2013) 2012

Completed Trespassing Bergman (project title: Bergman’s Video) (Jane Magnusson, Hynek Pallas), Gädda Five, Sweden – Venice 2013, Venezia Classici In post-production Europe’s Borderlands (Jakob Preuss), Weydemann Bros, Germany Knuckles’ Last Tape (Jos de Putter), Dieptescherpte, The Netherlands South Facing Wall (Kutlug Ataman), The Institute for the Readjustment of Clocks, Turkey 50 NPP 2013

Pre-production Motherland (Senem Tüzen), Yeni Sinemacilar / Tato Film / Zela Film, Turkey Financing Again and Again (Cristina Ionescu), Temple Film, Romania Dust Cloth (Ahu Öztürk), Ret Film, Turkey Mudo (Daniel Martín Novel), Impronta Films, Spain Paradise Trips (Raf Reyntjens), Caviar Films, Belgium

Runt (Ieuan Morris), Fragrant Films, UK In the Heart (Nicole van Kilsdonk), Waterland Film, The Netherlands Martha’s Son (project title: Johanna’s Son) (Martin Krejci), Rinkel Film, The Netherlands Stink London, UK Dawson Productions, Czech Republic Kessels (Erik de Bruyn), CTM LEV Pictures, The Netherlands The Year I Turned 30 (Sacha Polak), Family Affair Films, The Netherlands

In development Death of a Salaryman (Adrian Sitaru), Vernon Films, UK Father (Artur Urbánski), Apple Film Production, Poland Parisienne (Gintautas Dailyda), Seansas Film / Fralita Films, Lithuania Pilgrimage (Brendan Muldowney), SP Films, Ireland Second Life (Gabriel Dettre), HVD Productions, Hungary Into the Blue (Jaap van Heusden), IJswater Films, The Netherlands

TENDERNESS NPP 2011

2011

Completed Tenderness (Marion Hansel), Man’s Film Productions, Belgium – Rotterdam 2013 The Blue wave (Merve Kayan, Zeynep Dadak), Bulut Film, Turkey – Release TBA The only son (Project title: The Journey) (Simonka de Jong), IDTV Docs, The Netherlands – IDFA 2012 Yozgat Blues (Mahmut Fazil Coskun), Hokus Fokus Film, Turkey – Istanbul 2013 45 Minutes to Ramallah (Project title: COOL Water) (Ali Samadi Ahadi), brave new work film productions, Germany - EmdenNorderney 2013 In post-production All cats are grey (Savina Dellicour), Tarantula Films, Belgium

THE ONLY SON NPP 2011

Culture Files (Various), gebrueder beetz Filmproduktion, Germany – Transmedia project: Series of five TV movies and downloadable app.

Korso (Akseli Tuomivaara), Bufo, Finland In pre-production Heinz (Piet Kroon), BosBros, The Netherlands Financing Liefde & Geluk (Project title: Metro) (Marcel Visbeen), NFI Productions, The Netherlands N.N. (Ineke Smits), N297 entertainment, The Netherlands Our House (Stefan Fjeldmark), Zentropa RamBUk, Denmark In development Black Diamond (Arthur Harari), Les Film Pelleas, France

Eternal Flame (Andre van der Hout), Volya Films, The Netherlands The Ranger (PJ Dillon), Fastnet Films, Ireland Thomas and the book of Everything (Ineke Houtman), Eyeworks Film & TV Drama, The Netherlands Young Boys (Hugo Lilja and Pella Kagerman), StellaNova Film, Sweden Whispering Clouds (Meikeminne Clinckspoor), Flinck Film, The Netherlands

2010

Completed A Long Story (Project name: Black Sea) (Jorien van Nes), Circe Film, The Netherlands – Utrecht 2013, Competition Life? or Theatre?

(Frans Weisz), Quintus Films, The Netherlands IDFA 2011

Rat King (Petri Kotwica), Making Movies, Finland Released in 2012 Run and Jump (Steph Green), Samson Films, Ireland – Tribeca 2013, Viewpoints The Aftermath (Wladyslaw Pasikowski), Apple Film Production, Poland – Gdynia 2012 The Bag of Flour (Kadija Saidi Leclere), La Cie Cinématographique Européenne, Belgium – Tanger 2012 What Richard Did (Project title: Blackrock) (Lenny Abrahamson), Element Pictures, Ireland – Toronto 2012, Contemporary World Cinema In post-production Life According to Nino (Simone van Dusseldorp) Family Affair Films/ Waterland Film & TV, The Netherlands Like the Wind (Marco Simon Puccioni), Intel Film/A-Movies Productions/Les Films de L’Astre (FR), Italy 2013 NPP 51

YOZGAT BLUES NPP 2011

The Sky above Us (Marinus Groothof), LEV Pictures, The Netherlands Shooting The Reaper (project title: Saint Anne in the Field) ( Zvonimir Juric), Kinorama, Croatia In pre-production Toldi (Project title: T Project) (György Pálfi), Katapult Film, Hungary Financing The Gadfly (Project title: Something Different) (Jasmin Dizdar), Sterling Pictures, UK In development Into the Flame (Project title: In The Poet’s House) (Sander Burger), NFI Productions, The Netherlands The Train Station (Mohamed Al-Daradji), Human Film, UK

52 NPP 2013

A LONG STORY NPP 2010

2009

Completed À perdre la raison (Joachim Lafosse), Versus Productions, Belgium - Cannes 2012, Un Certain Regard The unsaved (Project title: Flying Lessons) (Igor Cobileanski), Saga Film, Romania – Karlovy Vary 2013 Mister John (Christine Molloy/ Joe Lawlor), Samson Films, Ireland – Edinburgh 2013 My Brothers (Paul Fraser), Treasure Entertainment, Ireland Galway Film Fleadh 2010 My Brother the Devil (Sally El Hosaini), S Films, UK Sundance and Berlin 2012 The Inner Zone (Fosco Dubini), Dubini Filmproduktion, Germany – Switzerland Released in 2012 The State of Shock (Andrey Kosak), Vertigo/Emotion Film, Slovenia – Slovenian FF 2011

Liza, the Fox-Fairy (Károly Ujj Mészáros), Filmteam, Hungary – To be released in 2013 In post-production Come to my Voice (Hüseyin Karabey), A-Si Production, Turkey Cornea (Jochem de Vries), NFI Productions, The Netherlands and Riva Films, Germany Heaven on Earth (Pieter Kuijpers), Pupkin Film, The Netherlands – To be released 2013 Land (Jan-Willem van Ewijk), Augustus Film, The Netherlands In pre-production Kneeling on a Bed of Violets (Ben Sombogaart), NL Film & Television, The Netherlands In development Frog Zagreb Tokyo (Project title: Frog) (Elmir Jukic), Refresh Production, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mr. Lu’s Blues (Maria von Heland), 27 Films Production, Germany

2008

Completed Beyond (Project title: The Pigsties) (Pernilla August), Hepp Film AB, Sweden Venice 2010, Critic’s Week Bullhead (Project title: The Fields) (Michael R. Roskam), Savage Film, Belgium - Berlin 2011, Panorama Invasion (Dito Tsintadze), Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion, Germany Released in 2012 Isztambul (Project title: Istanbul) (Ferenc Török), Uj Budapest Filmstudió, Hungary Dublin 2010 Our Grand Despair (Seyfi Teoman), Bulut Film, Turkey - Berlin 2011, Competition

RUN & JUMP NPP 2010

Playoff (Eran Riklis), Topia Communications, Israel - Released in 2011 Shocking Blue (Mark de Cloe), Waterland Film & TV, The Netherlands Rotterdam 2010 Somewhere Tonight (Project title: 1-900) (Michael Di Jiacomo), Column Film, The Netherlands Karlovy Vary 2011 Son of Babylon (Project title: Um-Hussein) (Mohamed Al-Daradji), Human Film, United Kingdom Berlin 2010, Panorama Sonny Boy (Maria Peters), Shooting Star Film Production, The Netherlands Stony Brook New York 2011 The Runway (Ian Power), Fastnet Films, Ireland Galway Film Fleadh 2010 The Snow Queen (Marko Räät), F-Seitse, Estonia Released in 2010

THE AFTERMATH NPP 2010

Ursul (Project title: The Bear) (Dan Chisu), Libra Film, Romania - Released in 2011 In pre-production A Kronstadt Tale (Ben van Lieshout), Another Film, The Netherlands Financing Corps Diplomatique (Nadia Farès), Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion, Switzerland

2007

Completed Adrienn Pál (Ágnes Kocsis), Print KMH, Hungary Cannes 2010, Un Certain Regard Dusk (Project title: Without Limit) (Hanro Smitsman), Corrino Film, The Netherlands - Utrecht 2010 Milo (Berend Boorsma & Roel Boorsma), Fu Works, The Netherlands – Giffoni 2012

Ob ihr wollt oder nicht (Project title: Laura) (Ben Verbong), Elsani Film, Germany Released in 2009 Shirley- Visions of Reality (Gustav Deutsch), KGP Kranzelbinder Production, Austria – Berlin 2013 Supernova (Tamar van den Dop), Revolver, The Netherlands – Dutch release planned for February 2014 The Flowers of Kirkuk (Project title: Kirkuk) (Fariborz Kamkari), Farout Out Films, Italy - Rome 2010 The Great Kilapy (Zézé Gamboa), David & Golias, Portugal The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude), Hi Film Productions, Romania Berlin 2009, Forum Tomorrow Will Be Better (Dorota Kedzierzawska), Kid Film Sp Zoo, Poland Berlin 2011, Generation Kplus

Tony 10 (Mischa Kamp), Lemming Film, The Netherlands Released in 2012 Wake Wood (David Keating), Fantastic Film, Ireland - Lund 2009 Post-production Kurai, Kurai, Tales on the Wind (Marjoleine Boonstra), Volya Films, The Netherlands

2006

Completed Bon Appétit (David Pinillos), Morena Films, Spain - Malaga 2010 Christmas Story (Juha Wuolijoki), Diadik GmbH, Germany - Sarasota 2008 Here and There (Darko Lungulov), Media Plus, Serbia - Tribeca 2009 Involuntary (Ruben Östlund), Platform Production, Sweden - Cannes 2008, Un Certain Regard

2013 NPP 53

THE BLUE WAVE NPP 2010

Love and Other Crimes (Stefan Arsenijevic), Art & Popcorn, Serbia - Berlin 2008, Panorama Mission London (Dimitar Mitovski), SIA Advertising, Bulgaria Released in 2010 Nono, The ZigZag Kid (Project title: The Zigzag Kid) (Vincent Bal), BosBros, The Netherlands – Utrecht 2012 (Opening Film) Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Crying (Project title: From Belgrade with Love) (Bojan Vuletic), Art & Popcorn, Serbia - Released in 2011 Some Other Stories (Hanna Slak/Ivona Juka/ Ines Tanovic/Marija Dzidzeva/Ana Maria Rossi), SEE Films, Serbia/Slovenia/ Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Macedonia Released in 2010

54 NPP 2013

HEAVEN ON EARTH NPP 2009

Summer Heat (Monique van der Ven), Zomerhitte BV/Mulholland Picures, The Netherlands Released in 2008 Swchwrm (Project title: My Adventures

by V. Swchwrm) (Froukje Tan), Flinck Film, The Netherlands Released in 2012 The Hourglass (Project title: The Sands) (Szabolcs Tolnai), Art & Popcorn, Serbia - Serbia 2007 The Storm (Project title: 1953) (Ben Sombogaart), NL Film & Television, The Netherlands Released in 2009 Two Eyes Staring (Project title: Dead Girl) (Elbert van Strien), Accento Films, The Netherlands Released in 2009 Zero (Pawel Borowski), OpusFilm, Poland Released in 2009

2005

Completed Allez, Eddy!

(Gert Embrechts), Manta Film, Belgium Released in 2012 Atlantis (Digna Sinke), Waterland Film & TV, The Netherlands San Sebastian 2009 Black Butterflies (Project title: Smoke & Ochre) (Paula van der Oest), Riba Film, The Netherlands Tribeca 2011 It’s Hard to Be Nice (Srdjan Vuletic), Refresh Production, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Sarajevo 2007 Kino Lika (Dalibor Matanic), Kinorama, Croatia - Pula 2008 Nadine (Erik de Bruyn), Rocketta Film, The Netherlands Utrecht 2007 Projekció (Tamás Buvári), Inforg Studio, Hungary – Released in 2006

The War Is Over (Mitko Panov), Kamera 300, Switzerland Rotterdam 2007 Financing Amsterdam Gothic (Project title: Exhibition) (N.N.), Film Events, The Netherlands

2004

Completed Madonnas (Maria Speth), Pandora Film Produktion, Germany Berlin 2007, Forum Mamarosh (Moma Mrdakovic), Yalla Film Productions, France Released in 2012 Night Run (Dana Nechustan), Waterland Film & TV, The Netherlands Utrecht 2006 The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (Stephan Komandarev), RFF International, Bulgaria - Sofia 2008

BULLSHEAD NPP 2008

Winter in Wartime (Martin Koolhoven), Isabella Films, The Netherlands Released in 2008 Wolfsbergen (Nanouk Leopold), Circe Films, The Netherlands Berlin 2007, Forum

2003

Completed Blind (Tamar van den Dop), Phanta Vision Film, The Netherlands Giffoni 2007 Dennis P. (Pieter Kuijpers), Pupkin Film, The Netherlands released in 2007 Dotcom (Luis Galvão Teles), Fado Filmes, Portugal - Coimbra 2007 Duska (Jos Stelling), Jos Stelling Films, The Netherlands Utrecht 2007 Ex-Drummer (Koen Mortier), CCCP, Belgium Warsaw 2007

SHIRLEY - VISIONS OF REALITY NPP 2007

Guernsey (Nanouk Leopold), Circe Films, The Netherlands Cannes 2005 Director’s Fortnight House of Boys (Jean Claude Schlim), Delux Productions, Luxembourg released in 2009 P.S. Beirut (Project title: Benjamin’s Briefcase) (Michael Shamberg), Yalla Film Productions, France - turned into series Reykjavik-Rotterdam (Project title: SAS ReykjavikRotterdam) (Óskar Jónasson), Blueeyes Productions, Iceland - Rotterdam 2010 The Rabbit on the Moon (Jorge Ramirez Suarez), Beanca Films, Germany Berlin 2005, Special You Bet Your Life (Antonin Svoboda), coop99 Filmproduktion, Austria - Toronto 2005 When Night Falls (Ineke Houtman), Waterland Film & TV, The Netherlands released in 2004

In development Summertime (Esmé Lammers), Fu Works, The Netherlands

2002

Completed Calimucho (Eugenie Jansen), Circe Films, The Netherlands Berlin 2009, Forum Eep! (Rita Horst), Lemming Film, The Netherlands Berlin 2010, Generation Kplus Floris (Johan Nijenhuis), NL Film & Television, The Netherlands Released in 2004 Hidden Flaws (Paula van der Oest), Filmproducties de Luwte, The Netherlands Utrecht 2004 Jam (Lieven Debrauwer), K-Line, Belgium Venice Days 2004

Spoon (Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen), Lemming Film, The Netherlands – Released in 2005 The Aviatrix of Kazbek (Project title: Mountains at Sea) (Ineke Smits), Isabella Films, The Netherlands Rotterdam 2010 South (Martin Koolhoven), Isabella Films, The Netherlands Vancouver 2004

2013 NPP 55

Index Titles

Production companies

Producers

Abalone Wars 36 The Absence 4 The Burning Bridges 6 The Cliff Shore 8 Cross your Heart 10 Do you love me 12 The Dream-God 14 Eisenstein in Guanajuato 38 Equator 16 Exotic Pictures 40 The Fear of God 42 God’s Legs 18 Heartstone 20 Kai 22 La Holandesa 44 Monk 46 My Name is Emily 24 Passing Clouds 26 Pigs on the Wind 28 Play Me, Kusturica 30 A Quiet Passion 32 Scrappers! A Northern Western 34 The Witch of the Fens 48

Babibutafilm (Indonesia) 40 Buzzmedia Network (The Netherlands) 36 CryCinema (Ukraine) 22 Film House Kiselo Dete (Serbia) 30 Fu Works (The Netherlands) 48 Hurricane Films (Ireland) 32 Imval Producciones (Spain) 18 Join Motion Pictures (Iceland) 20 jucca film Angerbauer & Kirberg (Germany) 4 Just a moment (Lithuania) 12 Kamara (Turkey) 8 Kennedy Films (Ireland) 24 Kundschafter Filmproduktion (Germany) 12 Lemming Film (The Netherlands) 40 Mandra Films (France) 12 Marni Films (Greece) 28 La Mer a Boire Productions (France) 6 Newgrange Pictures (Ireland) 24 proline film (Russia) 14 Savage Film (Belgium) 16 Scala Productions (UK) 26 Screenpartners (The Netherlands) 42 Shooting Star (The Netherlands) 42 Smarthouse (The Netherlands) 44 Submarine (The Netherlands) 38 Tamtam Film (Germany) 34 Vertigo Production (Finland) 10 Viking Film (The Netherlands) 46 Volya Films (The Netherlands) 12 Wostok (UK) 26 Zeitun Films (Spain) 4

Michèle Aimé 37 Judith Angerbauer 5 Roy Boulter 33 Leonid Choub 15 Dirk Decker 35 Eva Eisenloeffel 41 Dirk Engelhardt 13 Bruno Felix 39 Jelena Goldbach 27 Danielle Guirguis 45 Ludovic Henry 7 Kathryn Kennedy 25 Caroline Kirberg 5 Michael Kotschi 5 Felipe Lage 5 Bart van Langendonck 17 Nikola Lezaic 31 Eric Mabillon 13 Darin Mailand-Mercado 21 San Fu Maltha 49 Lesley McKimm 25 Yoel Meranda 9 Solon Papadopoulos 33 Snezana Penev 31 Maria Peters 43 Leontine Petit 41 Ian Prior 27 Luis Angel Ramírez 19 Ievgeniia Raukh 23 Els Rientjes 49 Dave Schram 43 Andrea Schütte 35 Andrei Sigle 15 Hilmar Sigurðsson 21 Marleen Slot 47 Anton Máni Svansson 21 Lorna Tee 41 Uros Tomic 31 Denis Vaslin 13 Dagne Vildziunaite 13 Minna Virtanen 11 Phaedra Vokali 29 Simon de Waal 43 Femke Wolting 39 Olga Zhurzhenko 23

Directors Heinrich Dahms 37 Terence Davies 33 Edwin 41 Simon Fitzmaurice 25 Valeriya Gai Germanika 15 Joost van Ginkel 45 Pablo González 7 Peter Greenaway 39 Guðmundur A. Guðmundsson 21 Rainer Kirberg 5 Tatiana Korol 27 Petri Kotwica 11 Lina Luzyte 13 Pablo Malo 19 Mehmet Can Mertoglu 9 Hans van Nuffel 17 Stergios Paschos 29 Ties Schenk 47 Thijs Schreuder 49 Oleg Sentsov 23 Uros Tomic 31 Simon de Waal 43 Max Zähle 35

56 NPP 2013

33RD NETHERLANDS FILM FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 25 - OCTOBER 4, 2013 FILMFESTIVAL.NL