Berlin Day 6 by Media Business Insight

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16 2016

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Digital power players pushed aside at EFM George Clooney in Berlin

Suburbicon sells out world BY JEREMY KAY

Bloom has sold out the world on Suburbicon, the Coen brothers’ dark comedy that George Clooney will direct and stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore. eOne will distribute in the UK, Tele München/Concorde in Germany, Tri-Pictures in Spain, Leone Films in Italy and Sun Distribution in Latin America. Alex Walton and his team have licensed rights in Canada (Elevation), Greece (Odeon), Hong Kong (Bravos), Scandinavia (MisLabel), Romania (Odeon), Turkey (Bir), South Korea (Woosung), Japan (Tohokushinka Film Corporation), India (PVR), Taiwan (Filmware), Czech Republic (AQS), Poland (Monolith), Australia (Roadshow), former Yugoslavia (Blitz) and the Middle East (Salim Ramia). As Screen reported exclusively earlier in the market, Paramount will distribute in the US after paying $10m. Black Bear Pictures is financing Suburbicon, which Joel Silver will produce through Silver Pictures alongside Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures label, and Black Bear chief Teddy Schwarzman. The film takes place in the titular quiet family town, where a home invasion exposes the best and worst of humanity.

BY JEREMY KAY

The influence on the industry of Netflix and Amazon has dominated conversations in the MartinGropius-Bau and the hotel corridors and restaurants of Berlin. The digital power players have been the talk of markets before, but this time there have been signs of a push-back. Several strong recent theatrical plays that out-manoeuvred Netflix and Amazon have heartened the independent community, whose international buyers remain terrified of the threat. Fox Searchlight prevailed over Netflix in a bidding war for Sundance hit The Birth Of A Nation after the producers favoured a proven theatrical and awards specialist, especially in light of the streaming giant’s ineffectual release and subsequent awards shut-out for Beasts Of No Nation. A one-two punch in Berlin con-

on small screens in the US. The issue is not going away and with companies like YouTube and Hulu, which has been on a hiring spree in Los Angeles, poised to enter the fray, it is up to the independents to take destiny into their own hands. According to one Dutch producer, who called Netflix “a cancer on the industry”, the streaming giant has little interest in local titles. That may be because it is cutting deals to make its own product with local producers. However, it cannot spend indefinitely and savvy distributors are forging ties with content creators to stay relevant. Besides all that, business was brisk and there was enough in the market to keep buyers ticking over until Cannes. Finecut’s Operation Chromite, Memento’s Farsi-language project from Asghar Farhadi, and Embankment’s Submergence all sparked wide interest.

Alone In Berlin, page 6

NEWS See-Saw’s TV push Crime drama The North Water being lined-up by The King’s Speech producer » Page 3

REVIEW Alone In Berlin A handsomely mounted but unexceptional war drama comes undone at the last » Page 6

FEATURE Building on Brooklyn Wildgaze Films on its Bafta-winning hit and future slate » Page 12

SCREENINGS What films to see at the festival and EFM today » Page 18

Final print daily This is Screen’s final print edition for Berlin 2016. Continue to follow all the news, reviews and jury grid updates at ScreenDaily.com

Wild Bunch steps up

Hubert Boesl

BERLIN BRIEFS Sundance grabs Things Sundance Selects has acquired US rights to Mia Hansen-Love’s Things To Come following the film’s world premiere here in Competition. It marks Sundance Selects’ second collaboration with Les Films du Losange on Hansen-Love’s films.

Sony adds Salt

Julianne Moore here for the European premiere of Maggie’s Plan

Benelux cherry-picks Les Ogres Pyramide International has secured sales on Léa Fehner’s Les Ogres, which won the VPRO Big Screen Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this month. The film has sold to Switzerland’s Cinework and fledgling Benelux

tinued the theme. Miramax came in to partner with Roadside Attractions on another Park City premiere, Southside With You, while Amazon was among buyers that lost out to the retooled Focus Features on Jeff Nichols’ upcoming Loving. Sales agents, uneasy about the threat to their long-time distribution partners, are nonetheless at the behest of their producer clients and will continue to cut deals with the new order. On the eve of the market, Beta Cinema licensed world rights excluding Germany and select markets to Netflix on Constantin’s Hitler satire Look Who’s Back. Buyers also face a challenge from VoD and day-and-date models in the US, where an early non-theatrical release will devalue their international rights when the holdback period expires and the film is already available

TODAY

distributor Cherry Pickers, a new outfit launched by former Imagine Film Distribution staffer Huub Roelvink and David van Marlen. Paris-based Pyramide’s distribution arm is to release the film, which follows the chaotic lives of

Sony Pictures Entertainment is developing a TV remake of Angelina Jolie-fronted spy film Salt. The studio is pitching the adaptation at EFM.

Grasshopper takes off travelling theatre company Chekhov Cabaret, in France on March 16. IFFR’s VPRO Big Screen Award is worth $34,000, covering publicity costs for a theatrical release in the Netherlands, the sale of TV rights to Dutch broadcaster NPO and an amount for the film-maker. Melanie Goodfellow

Ryan Krivoshey has launched distributor Grasshopper Film. The US firm will focus on domestic releases and aims for eight to 12 titles theatrically — the first being Asghar Farhadi’s Fireworks Wednesday — and more than 50 titles on VoD, home video and otherwise non-theatrically a year.

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Wild Bunch Germany has prebought rights to Broad Green Pictures comedy Ain’t No Half Steppin’ from Mister Smith Entertainment. The deal was negotiated by Wild Bunch Germany’s MD Marc Gabizon and David Garrett, CEO of Mister Smith Entertainment, which launched the film at EFM to considerable interest. Matt Alvarez (Straight Outta Compton), Lena Waithe (Dear White People) and Benjamin Cory Jones (Hand Of God) produce the story of an ambitious black sorority girl who, in order to be admitted to the law school of her dreams, agrees to cross cultural lines and teach the art of black Greek stepping to a band of Kardashianobsessed, white sorority girls. Due to begin shooting in April or May, the film will be directed by Charles Stone (Drumline) from a script by Chuck Hayward. Broad Green Pictures will distribute Ain’t No Half Steppin’ theatrically in the US. Casting is underway.

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NEWS

See-Saw plots course for TV thriller North Water Marco Müller

Müller to head Macau festival BY LIZ SHACKLETON

Marco Müller has been appointed director of the first Macau International Film Festival, set to run December 8-13 in the city state of Macau. Formerly head of the Venice and Rome film festivals, Müller was chief consultant at last year’s Beijing International Film Festival, where he revamped the international competition section. He also headed programming at Silk Road International Film Festival in Fuzhou, China, last September. The new event aims to become a major hub in East Asia for redcarpet premieres of Asian and international films, and is hosted by the government of Macau and the Macau Film & Television Productions and Culture Association. Lorna Tee has been named the festival’s head of programming, which is set to have an international line-up with a slant towards genre films. It will feature a competition section, galas, special focus sections, industry screenings and a co-production event.

BY PETER WHITE

See-Saw Films is developing Ian McGuire’s period crime novel The North Water as a drama series, as The King’s Speech producer looks to grow its fledgling TV division. The book, published this month by Scribner, revolves around a 19th-century whaling ship that sets sail for the Arctic with a killer on board. See-Saw is looking to adapt it into a bigbudget thriller after optioning the rights. The UK firm, run by Iain Can-

Heli director Amat Escalante has been named the subject of the Tribute strand at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival. The festival, which runs August 12-20, will invite the Mexican director, writer and producer to present his films at the 22nd edition. Escalante will also be the subject of a career interview and will attend Q&A sessions following the screenings. Escalante, who has visited the festival twice before, won best director at Cannes in 2013 with Heli, while his other works include Sangre and The Bastards.

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launched its small-screen unit in 2012. Head of TV Jamie Laurenson told Screen it wanted to broaden the range of projects it produces as it aggressively ramps up its TV arm. “We’re working on thrillers, shows that have a sense of humour, and we actually have a children’s live-action show on our slate,” he added. See-Saw has more than 20 TV projects in active development. The second edition of EFM’s Drama Series Days kicked off yesterday.

Hubert Boesl

Cairo-based MAD Solutions has boarded upcoming feature The Reports On Sarah And Saleem, from Palestinian film-makers Muayad and Rami Alayan, which was presented at this year’s Berlinale co-production market. The Ramallah-based brothers are participating in Berlinale Talents, having premiered their debut Love, Theft And Other Entanglements here in 2015. Directed by Muayad and written by Rami, The Reports On Sarah And Saleem revolves around lovers from either side of the Middle Eastern conflict divide. In addition to the Alayans’ new project, MAD has also boarded Amir Endalah’s feature-length documentary Hi-Jab, which is about German-Lebanese Muslim teenager Noor, who is mulling a career in female boxing. Melanie Goodfellow

Secrets of their success BY MATT MUELLER

Emma Thompson and Daniel Brühl at the photo call for Alone In Berlin ahead of last night’s Competition world premiere.

Sarajevo plans Wide goes Tribute for for Glory Amat Escalante BY MICHAEL ROSSER

ning and Emile Sherman, is at EFM to discuss a raft of TV projects with international broadcasters and co-production partners. It will launch comedy drama Love, Nina, written by Nick Hornby and starring Helena Bonham Carter, in the Berlinale Special Series strand tomorrow. It is See-Saw’s latest TV project, following Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake and Jimmy McGovern’s Banished. The company, which also produced Steve McQueen’s Shame,

MAD orders Reports

French sales outfit Wide Management has pre-sold drama Glory, the next film from the directorial duo behind festival award winner The Lesson (Urok). Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov are in postproduction on the Bulgarian drama, which will be ready in time for Cannes and stars Margita Gosheva (The Lesson). Italy’s I Wonder Pictures has snapped up the film, having previously acquired The Lesson, which it will release in March. The Lesson won the new director’s award at San Sebastian in 2014. Michael Rosser

New Sparta heats up Cold War tale BY TOM GRATER

New Sparta Films is lining up a feature about Project Azorian, a real-life Cold War operation to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. The company has optioned David H Sharp’s The CIA’s Greatest Covert Operation, which is being used as the basis to develop the ambitious project.

Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes was involved in the CIA’s attempt to recover the submarine from under the nose of the Soviets. New Sparta Films financed two titles that are being introduced to buyers at EFM: Juan Carlos Medina’s horror thriller The Limehouse Golem, sold by HanWay; and Martin Koolhoven’s western Brimstone, sold by Embankment.

Wide House seals Porno deals Wide House has made further deals here, led by Carmine Amoroso’s Porno e Liberta. The documentary film about the Italian porn industry has sold to Benelux (Film & Media), having previously sold to Germany

and Austria (Donau Films) and Scandinavia (Njuta Films). Wide House has also sold refugee doc Those Who Jump, ahead of its Forum world premiere on Friday, to Italy (I Wonder Pictures).

International producers shared their tips for success and survival in the modern film landscape in an EFM panel moderated by Screen. In an open and frank discussion, the conversation included insight on protecting producers’ fees, setting up international co-productions and better managing cash flows in order to navigate lean times. The panel agreed that enduring as an independent producer poses continual challenges but all were driven by passion. “You should work out what you need in your life, financially and everything else that makes you happy,” advised Natasha Dack from the UK’s Tigerlily Productions. “As long as those elements are there, I’m happy to carry on doing it.” Also on the panel were Sol Bondy of Germany’s One Two Films, Guneet Monga of India’s Sikhya Entertainment and Agnes Johansen from Baltasar Kormakur’s RVK Studios in Iceland. » Full report on ScreenDaily.com

February 16, 2016 Screen International at Berlin 3

NEWS

Ink Factory to unveil big-budget Manager Louis & Nolan: The Big Cheese Race

Louis & Nolan shoot for the Moon BY WENDY MITCHELL

Maipo Film is readying the third film in the Louis & Nolan franchise, which will see the animated duo head into space. Louis & Nolan: Mission To The Moon is in production for release in 2018. Rasmus A Sivertsen again directs from a screenplay by Karsten Fullu. Cornelia Boysen and Synnove Horsdal produce, with co-producers Qvisten Animation and the Kari And Kjell Aukrust Foundation. Sola Media will again handle sales. The second film in the stopmotion animation trilogy, Louis & Nolan: The Big Cheese Race, is competing in the Generation Kplus section and has been a boxoffice hit at home in Norway. Maipo is also planning an April shoot for another family film, live action The Ash Lad: In The Hall Of The Mountain King, produced by Ireland’s Subotica and Serena in the Czech Republic. TrustNordisk handles sales.

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

With a budget and creative team that most film producers can only dream of, it is easy to see why Susanne Bier’s six-part TV series The Night Manager is among the most anticipated projects to screen at Berlin this year. The BBC-AMC co-commission combines acclaimed source material from iconic spy novelist John le Carré, Oscar-winning director Bier, in-demand screenwriter David Farr and a cast including Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Debicki, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander. At $30m, the series has a budget bigger than any film playing at this year’s Berlinale, and at $5m per episode, the series is the most expensive per episode of any commissioned by a UK broadcaster. Hiddleston plays Pine, the night manager of a European hotel who is recruited by intelligence agents to infiltrate an international arms dealer’s network. “It has been a 23-year journey from book to screen,” explained Le Carré’s son, Simon Cornwell, who produces with brother Stephen under their London and Los Angeles-based The Ink Factory. “Soon after the book was pub-

Swiss film-makers benefit from cash rebate scheme BY MARTIN BLANEY

Switzerland is to launch a cash rebate scheme this year to promote investment in films produced in the country. The Federal Office of Culture (BAK) announced in Berlin yesterday that applications can be submitted from May 1 for financial support amounting to 20% of the eligible expenses generated in Switzerland for a film’s production, with the funding capped for 2016 at $611,000 (CHF600,000). Only Swiss film production companies will be able to submit an application to the programme, which will have a $3.05m (CHF3m) budget this year and

$6.1m (CHF6m) from 2017. Ukraine could have its own 25% cash rebate in place by Cannes in May as the government recently accepted a draft law, prepared by major Ukrainian filmmakers and studios. Switzerland’s BAK has also greenlit increases in the maximum amounts paid in distribution support by Swiss Films to support the release of Swiss film in European cinemas. As from July 1, distributors in Germany, France, Italy and Austria will be able to receive up to $51,000 (CHF50,000) per release and $30,500 (CHF30,000) for all other European countries.

4 Screen International at Berlin February 16, 2016

The Night Manager

lished in 1993, it was optioned by Paramount as a feature with Sydney Pollack attached to direct from Robert Towne’s script. That didn’t work. Five years ago, Brad Pitt and Plan B Entertainment took it on with Paramount again on board. But that didn’t work either,” said Simon Cornwell. “This is a sprawling 500-page book, across different continents, with massive characters who muscle their way off the page,” added Stephen Cornwell. “It just didn’t fit into 90 minutes.” The Ink Factory is on a roll. Having produced back-to-back Le Carré film adaptations (A Most Wanted Man and Our Kind Of Traitor), the company is in post-

production on Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Fabrice Du Welz’s Message From The King, both of which are released this year. Projects in development include a TV series from Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk author Ben Fountain and features including thriller The Line, which Vin Diesel’s One Race Films has co-developed. Recent staff additions include former Cross Creek executive Becky Sloviter, Mona Qureshi, Emma Broughton, Jane Frazier and Yogita Puri. The first two episodes of The Night Manager screen here on Thursday as part of the Berlinale Special Series strand.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Baigazin heads for City in second trilogy BY MARTIN BLANEY

Kazakh director Emir Baigazin is planning his next film trilogy as his second feature The Wounded Angel has its world premiere in Panorama today. “Harmony Lessons and The Wounded Angel are the first two parts of a trilogy about teenagers and their complex relationships with the world and themselves,” producer Anna Vilgelmi of Kino Company told Screen. “Emir’s new project, Over The City, will be the opening for a new trilogy about the modern nightlife in Almaty, his monument to the city and the real life of young people. When people think of Kazakhstan and Central Asian cinema, they think of sheep and mountains, but there’s also something else.” Although the script is under wraps, Over The City is reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise as it follows an older woman and younger man strolling around the city of Almaty over the course of one night after a chance meeting in a supermarket. Shooting is planned in Almaty for this summer with The Wounded Angel’s German co-producers Augenschein Filmproduktion attached as partners.

Bort ascends into Cloud BY JEREMY KAY

Next big things make Berlin bow EFP’s Shooting Stars 2016 (from left): Kacey Mottet Klein (Switzerland), Martha Canga Antonio (Belgium), Maria Valverde (Spain), Sara Serraiocco (Italy), Lou de Laage (France), Daphné Patakia (Greece), Dieter Kosslick (director, Berlinale), Reinout Scholten van Aschat (Netherlands), Tihana Lazovic (Croatia), Jella Haase (Germany), Atli Oskar Fjalarsson (Iceland) and Richard Shen (CEO, Tesiro).

Film-rights online marketplace Digital Film Cloud Network (DFCN) has appointed Daniel Bort as EVP of customer marketplace development. Bort arrives from Expression Entertainment, where as president he was responsible for commercial operations, film acquisitions and sales. He will lead all customer acquisitions, service, licensing and delivery of the approximately 14,000 titles on DFCN, which launched in late 2014. Bort will maintain a close relationship with Expression and retain it as a client on the platform.

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PORTUGAL BERLINALE SHORTS DIRECTOR: GABRIEL ABRANTES DIRECTOR: IVO FERREIRA

FREUD UND FRIENDS PRODUCTION: IndieLisboa and Gabriel Abrantes SCREENING: Sunday, February 14th, 04:00 PM, Cinemaxx 5 / Tuesday, February 16th, 04:00 PM, Cinemaxx 5 / Wednesday, February 17th, 05:00 PM, Colosseum 1 / Friday, February 19th, 10:00 PM, Cinemaxx 3

DIRECTOR: LEONOR TELES

BATRACHIAN'S BALLAD PRODUCTION: Uma Pedra no Sapato SCREENING: Friday, February 12th, 4:00 PM, Cinemaxx 5 / Tuesday, February 16th, 10:00 PM. Cinemaxx 3 / Thursday, February 18th, 05:00 PM, Colosseum 1 / Friday, February 19th, 04:00 PM, Cinemaxx 5 / Saturday, February 20th, 04:00 PM / Sunday, February 21st, 07:30 PM, Zoo Palast 2

CONTACTS IN BERLIN: MARTIN GROPIUS BAU - 1ST FLOOR, BOOTH Nr. 138 MAIL@ICA-IP.PT // WWW.ICA-IP.PT

Reviews Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan

finn.halligan@screendaily.com

Alone in Berlin Reviewed by Wendy Ide A handsomely mounted if unexceptional Second World War drama, this adaptation of Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel bears all the hallmarks of a quality production. The cast is solid, in particular Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson as the working-class Berliner couple who set up their own cottage-industry resistance movement. The score, by Alexandre Desplat, is fine, despite its tendency to spoon-feed the audience. JeanVincent Puzos’ exemplary production design tells us more about the central characters and the world they inhabit than anything they say. However, the standard of work both in front of and behind the camera is not enough to distract from the fact this is film-making that hits a few too many of the familiar beats of the genre. The picture is further compromised by its final scene. The recent popularity of the source material — the book, which was based on a real-life couple, was translated into English in 2009 and became a surprise bestseller in the UK and US — will generate audience interest in anglophone territories. The presence of Thompson in the cast will also help the picture’s prospects within some demographics. However, whether this will be enough to distinguish the film from previous titles in the crowded Second World War thriller genre is less certain.

Death In Sarajevo Reviewed by David D’Arcy In Death In Sarajevo, the mourning of a century’s wounds is put on hold as the class struggle is exhumed inside a luxury hotel. Danis Tanovic’s film reconfigures and expands the play Hotel Europe by Bernard-Henri Lévy, seizing on today’s frustrations in the Bosnian capital to reflect on a hundred years of conflict and bloodshed among close neighbours. Tanovic’s allusive script is often clever in its observations about a troubled past shaping a troubled present. Yet as other European crises eclipse the lingering malaise in the former Yugoslavia, it is doubtful Death In Sarajevo will generate significant interest outside of that region or Tanovic’s adopted France. Past and present are interwoven in a Sarajevo hotel when a world-weary French diplomat (Jacques Weber) checks in to give what promises to be a boring speech on the centennial of the assassination there of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. As the city prepares to mark the shootings

6 Screen International at Berlin February 16, 2016

» Alone In Berlin p6 » Death In Sarajevo p6 » Crosscurrent p8 » On The Other Side p8

» Dog Days p10 » Rauf p10 » Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? p11

Competition Ger-Fr-UK. 2016. 103mins Director Vincent Perez Production company XfilmeCreativePool, Master Movies, FilmWave International sales Cornerstone office@ cornerstonefilms.com Producers Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott, Marco Pacchioni, James Schamus, Paul Trijbits, Christian Grass Screenplay Achim von Borries, Vincent Perez, Bettine von Borries, based on the novel by Hans Fallada Cinematography Christophe Beaucarne Editor Francois Gédigier Music Alexandre Desplat Production design Jean-Vincent Puzos Main cast Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Brühl, Mikael Persbrandt, Monique Chaumette

The unassuming lives of Otto and Anna Quangel are rent apart by the news their son has been killed in combat. Director Vincent Perez juxtaposes their mute misery with the fiesta atmosphere in Berlin following the news of the French defeat. The city is full of Nazi-approved bunting and beer. At home, aimlessly doodling on a card, Otto changes the word ‘Führer’ to ‘lügner’, meaning ‘liar’. An idea forms; with the complicity of Anna, he meticulously pens anti-Hitler slogans onto postcards and leaves them around the city. Berliners live in a culture of fear — we know this because practically every other shot features a stab of suspicion from some hard-eyed official. So it’s not surprising that most of the cards are handed in to the authorities. In charge of the

Competition Fr-Bos-Her. 2016. 85mins Director Danis Tanovic Production companies Margo Cinema, SCCA/ pro.ba International sales The Match Factory, info@matchfactory.de Producers Francois Margolin, Amra Baksic Camo, Adis Djapo Screenplay Danis Tanovic (based on Hotel Europe by Bernard-Henri Lévy) Cinematographer Erol Zubcevic Editor Redzinald Simek Music Mirza Tahirovic Production Design Mirna Ler Main cast Jacques Weber, Snezana Vidovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Vedrana Seksan, Muhamed Hadzovic

that pushed the region into the First World War, low-paid workers in the hotel plan a strike. Like so many insurrections in this part of the world, the gambit looks doomed. Tanovic’s hotel shows its seams and its interior as the scenario takes the film far beyond the original play, a 90-minute monologue. Corruption is shown to be rife in the city and gangsters rule the building from a strip club in the basement, a cute touch on the upstairs/downstairs formula. Omer (Izudin Bajrovic), the gloomy hotel manager, has no choice but to follow their orders. The multi-story grand hotel motif enables Tanovic to juggle several plot lines, including an interview on the rooftop between a local televi-

investigation is Inspector Escherich (Daniel Brühl, the only actor who doesn’t affect a German accent as thick as sauerkraut). In the absence of any indication of the effect the Quangel’s campaign has had on the general populace, Escherich becomes the audience for the slogans as well as their investigator. It is a similar role to the one Gleeson played in Suffragette — the tireless policeman who cannot help but be moved by the fervour and idealism of those he pursues. The lamentable final scene takes this narrative device to a crude and preposterous extreme.

Screen Score

★★

sion host (Vedrana Seksan) and a young handsome Serb named Gavrilo (Muhamed Hadzovic), coiffed in what looks like a 1914 hairstyle. If he can’t defend the 1914 attack, who can? Policemen protecting the visiting diplomat a few floors below have installed surveillance cameras, yet the spies are the least equipped to evaluate the information that they gather. They are also armed. If you haven’t guessed, each storyline is a spiral downward. Tanovic tries to liven the well-worn discussions with constant motion through the hotel corridors (and historians providing context, some of it valuable, from sunny rooftops). Still, this is what we have been hearing for years now, and the insight awarded by the strike subplot — that governing is as much of a challenge as winning a war — isn’t new. You come out of Death In Sarajevo feeling that you’ve slogged through a familiar stretch of mud — filmed competently, but not memorably. The Bosnian cast shows an abundance of talent and spirit, even when characters are looking in the rear-view mirror so much of the time.

Screen Score

★ www.screendaily.com

adv screen-02 10-02-16_Opmaak 1 10-02-16 16:50 Pagina 1

YOUNG WRESTLERS by Mete G端m端rhan

Screenings: Sun Feb 14 14:30 Wed Feb 17 09:30

CinemaxX 10 (EFM) Zoo Palast 1

Thu Feb 18 10:00

Filmtheater am Friedrichshain

Sat Feb 20

CinemaxX 3

11:30

NEED FOR MEAT by Marijn Frank

Screenings: Wed Feb 17 19:30 MGB Thu Feb 18 19:00 CineStar IMAX

REVIEWS

On The Other Side Reviewed by Sarah Ward

Crosscurrent Reviewed by Lee Marshall

Competition

Life as a long, slow river? Sixth-generation Chinese director Yang Chao’s Competition entry Crosscurrent takes the hoary old metaphor for a magic-realist boatride in a meandering, sluggish tale that offers moments of great beauty but ultimately feels like a ragbag, takeyour-pick bundle of poetic and spiritual suggestions inspired by China’s great Yangtze River. Yang’s languorous cinematic cruise centres on Gao Chun (Qin Hao), the moody captain of a rusty hulk who has been given the job of steering a cargo upriver from Shanghai to somewhere beyond the Three Gorges. His readings from a book of poems he finds on board, apparently written by a former crew member, break Chun’s 10-day journey into loose chapters. Meanwhile his romantic attentions are fixed on the elusive An Lu (Xin Zhilei), who appears throughout the voyage. Chun inherited the captain’s job — for which he seems to have little aptitude — from his recently deceased father and is accompanied on the journey by wizened old Uncle Xiang (Jiang Hualin) and another younger family member, Wu Sheng (Wu Lipeng), but the trio very rarely has anything resembling a conversation. In Jiangyin, on day two of the journey, Chun cuts a shady deal to ferry a cargo of fish upriver — code, we assume, for more risky merchandise. An and Chun have their first, steamy sexual encounter in Jiangyin, where it seems she works as a prostitute — and their paths continue to cross in other locations as he journeys upriver. According to the pressbook and a few lines of voiceover, the elusive everywoman gets younger as the journey continues, but there is little evidence of this in her appearance. An almost drama-free film whose Berlinale press screening prompted a steady leak of walkouts, Crosscurrent pays back some of the viewer’s investment in the final quarter, when the battered boat enters the Three Gorges Dam. Lulled by the gentle rocking of an oneiric, Buddhist-inspired upstream journey, we can enjoy Mark Lee Ping-bing’s evocative photography and a moody score of cello-heavy classical and darkwave numbers, safe in the knowledge that the source, and the end, is close at hand.

Screen Score

8 Screen International at Berlin February 16, 2016

China. 2016. 116mins Director/screenplay Yang Chao Production companies Beijing Trend Cultural Investment, Ray Production, Just Show Production Beijing, Shan Dong Jiabo Culture Development International sales Ray Production, yiranss88@gmail.com Producers Wang Yu, Yang Jing, Ha Bo Cinematography Mark Lee Ping-bing Editors Yang Mingming, Kong Jinlei Production designer Zhao Ye Music An Wei Main cast Qin Hao, Xin Zhilei, Wu Lipeng, Wang Hongwei, Jiang Hualin, Tan Kai

The perils of the past keep echoing through the cinema of the present, and On The Other Side is the latest film to contemplate the contemporary consequences of historical conflict. In Croatian film-maker Zrinko Ogresta’s seventh feature, a Bosnian war survivor reconnects reluctantly with the man who forced her to fear for her safety, flee her home and forge a new life. That he happens to be her husband complicates matters significantly. At face value, the newest addition to Ogresta’s resumé — joining the likes of European Film Award nominee Fragments and Karlovy Vary special jury prize winner Tu — recalls another recent effort involving a wife wronged in war-torn times, Christian Petzold’s Phoenix. On The Other Side also shares that film’s struggle with forgiveness and search for normality, understanding how longheld affection can resurface even after acts of violence or betrayal. On The Other Side does not simply transport familiar elements to a new setting, though. Instead, it takes yet another communal component — the minutiae of everyday routines — and burrows into it more deeply. Flitting between her apartment, her roving nursing duties and the commute between the two, Vesna (Ksenija Marinkovic) does all she can to adhere to a regular schedule. Assisting her son Vladimir (Robert Budak) by babysitting her young grandson may help break up the monotony of her days, as does helping her soon-to-bemarried daughter Jadranka (Tihana Lazovic) secure postuniversity work, but a pattern remains — until a phone call disrupts her carefully constructed existence. The voice on the end of the line belongs to Zarko (Lazar Ristovski), and beckons an unwelcome blast from the past. And yet, though Vesna is initially hesitant to talk to the war criminal (who she remains married to but has not seen for more than two decades), she starts to feel sympathetic towards him, while her children disapprove. Tension emanates from the film’s many clashes. Yet through enlisting acclaimed theatre performers Marinkovic and Ristovski, Ogresta ensures the stress that seeps through the feature does so with a subtle touch. Of course, with Ogresta ever the meticulous and restrained director, they’re not the only part of the feature designed to linger. Or lurk, as cinematographer Branko Linta’s camera does, and editor Tomislav Pavlic’s sense of pacing, too. On The Other Side does not just make its characters confront their multifaceted situation, but, almost by stealth, makes its viewers face the many sides to every story as well.

Panorama Cro-Serb. 2016. 85mins Director/screenplay Zrinko Ogresta Production companies Interfilm, Zillion Film International sales Ceramon, sebastien@ cercamon.biz Producer Ivan Maloca Screenplay Mate Matisic, Zrinko Ogresta Cinematography Branko Linta Editor Tomislav Pavlic Production design Tanja Lacko Music Mate Matisic, Simun Matisic Main cast Ksenija Marinkovic, Lazar Ristovski, Tihana Lazovic, Robert Budak, Toni Sestan, Vinko Kraljevic, Alen Liveric, Marija Tadic, Ivan Brkic, Tena Jeic Gajski

★★ www.screendaily.com

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A MAN RETURNED by Mahdi Fleifel Screenings: Sun Feb 14 Tue Feb 16 Wed Feb 17 Fri Feb 19

16:00 16:00 17:00 22:00

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JONAS AND THE SEA by Marlies van der Wel Screenings: Wed Feb 17 Thu Feb 18 Fri Feb 19 Sun Feb 21

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NINNOC

by Nikki Padidar Screenings: Tue Feb 16 Thu Feb 18 Fri Feb 19

15:00 15:30 17:30

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SKATEKEET by Edward Cook Screenings: Wed Feb 17 Thu Feb 18 Fri Feb 19 Sun Feb 21

10:30 11:30 15:30 14:30

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SPOETNIK by NoĂŤl Loozen Screenings: Tue Feb 16 Wed Feb 17 Fri Feb 19 Sat Feb 20

17:30 14:30 13:00 17:30

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Rauf Reviewed by Dan Fainaru

Dog Days Reviewed by Sarah Ward The other side of parenting in modern-day China — the difficulties of and stigma attached to solo motherhood, rather than the restrictions placed on the number of children per family — is thrust into the spotlight in Dog Days (San Fu Tian). In telling the tale of a young woman searching for her missing baby, first-time feature director Jordan Schiele stresses the rarely considered nature of his topic in both his narrative and aesthetic choices. Commencing with a brightly lit scene before cloaking into shadow the bulk of the film that follows, his approach isn’t always subtle, but it is effective. Indeed, rarely is the movie’s protagonist, Lulu (Huang Lu), sighted without patches of darkness shading her expression, offering a constant visual reminder not only of the complexities of her situation, but of the murky standing of those living life in the margins. Her desire for a better future is certain to have broad appeal, though, and propel the film into further festival play. Single parenthood is far from Lulu’s mind when Dog Days begins in an underprivileged suburb of Changsha in Hunan Province. She leaves her son with his father, Bailong (Tian Mu Chen), when she works as a dancer by night. Unable to locate them one evening after her shift ends, Lulu is forced to turn to a local drag performer, Sunny (Luo Lanshan), for assistance. Arriving in Shanghai, Lulu discovers that Bailong has sold their son to a wealthy doctor, and his wife must decide whether a biological mother’s influence or an upbringing of comfort and means is the best option for her child. Huang (Blind Massage) wears the devastation of a mother separated from her offspring in every fixed stare and shuffling step. Luo (A Touch Of Sin) seethes with the uncertainty of being caught in the crossfire of someone else’s troubles. Though Dog Days does not shy away from the grim existence of China’s lower classes, both Huang and Luo play their parts as though they are stuck between the harsh glare of hard truths and the soft shimmer of something better. As largely naturalistic as the feature remains, the slightest trace of a dreamlike sheen — of the hope of brighter days beyond the pervasive shadows — still peeks through. It is a confident move by the scribe and helmer, who graduates with ease from short films, commercials and cinematography credits with this soulful and thoughtful drama debut.

10 Screen International at Berlin February 16, 2016

Panorama Special China. 2016. 95mins Director/screenplay Jordan Schiele Production company Making Film Productions International sales Bravos Pictures, ricky. tse@bravospictures.com Producers Pang Ho Cheung, Subi Liang Cinematography Nathanael Carton Editor Kong Jin Lei Production design Ying Hai Tao Music Patrick Jonsson Main cast Huang Lu, Tian Mu Chen, Luo Lanshan, Xing Dan Wen, Lu Ze Xian

Not quite the children’s item it pretends to be, Baris Kaya and Soner Caner’s striking debut feature looks, for the most part, like a deceptively gentle, innocent anthropological portrait of a small village lost in time through the vast spaces of north-east Turkey. But already from the very sombre, disquieting opening sequences, it seems a better fit for mature audiences than Berlinale’s Generation Kplus section. Rauf starts with a mother and her son huddling terrified through another sleepless night, listening to the echoes of a fierce battle. Next, a dead body lies on a rickety table, is picked up and carried by some peasants to its grave. Teenagers may or may not relish this kind of introduction but on the other hand, arthouses and festival programmers should stay and have a further look. They are bound to discover a subtle, eloquent — though carefully muted — political statement that will not be lost on their audiences. The village in question is Kurdish, though the film does not identify it as such, the shooting all through the night suggestive of battles between rebels and the Turkish army, but once again, nothing is spelled out. As for the plot, it concerns the coming of age of a 10-year-old boy, Rauf (Alen Huseyin Gursoy), who leaves school when his teacher kicks him out of class. He goes to learn a trade with his father’s carpenter friend and falls for the simple, unadorned charms of his daughter, Zana (Seyda Sozuer), who is 10 years older than Rauf. The unhurried pace of country life is even slower because of the weather. This could almost be a pastoral winter tale but for the persistent reminders that keep breaking into the proceedings, maintaining a level of subliminal anxiety. The villagers seem to be either old people or children, hardly any young, able bodies in sight (the carpenter’s main occupation is making coffins, each of his many customers is asked about the deceased’s age and size but never the cause of death). All this should be pretty clear for anyone who follows the news from Turkey, and Ankara’s treatment of the Kurdish population. Kaya and Caner get not only the right look, but also the correct tone, working on a minimalist scale that allows no grandstanding of any kind.

Generation KPlus Tur. 2016. 93mins Directors Baris Kaya, Soner Caner Production companies Peri Istanbul, Aslan Film Producers Selman Kizilaslan, Ugur Kizilaslan, Burak Ozan Sales contact Peri Istanbul, baris.kaya @periistanbul.com Screenplay Soner Caner Cinematography Vedat Ozdemir Editor Ahmet Boyacioglu, Ali Emre Uzsuz Music Ayse Onder, Umit Onder Cast Alen Huseyin Gursoy, Yavuz Gurbuz, Seyda Sozuer, Veli Ubic, Muhammed Ubic

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REVIEWS

Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? Reviewed by David D’Arcy You’re 40. You’re a gay Israeli in London, far from your Orthodox family. You’re HIV positive, nurtured by your friends in the London Gay Men’s Chorus. And your parents say they want you back home. This is the plight of Saar Maoz, the protagonist of Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?, a documentary of guilt and introspection by Tomer and Barak Heymann. Taking its title from the post-diagnosis despair of a man with HIV, this film distills down to feature length a personal journey that has the breadth of a reality series. If ingredients were a movie, the Heymanns would have something substantial here: a troubled man facing middle age, a gruff father who trains paratroopers, a tearful mother, uncomprehending siblings with their own families and cutaways to motivational songs performed by a hundred cheerful gay voices. Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? brings enough laughs to that mix to count on a long ride at festivals, especially Jewish film festivals worldwide, with some arthouse theatrical exposure before a berth on television in Europe and North America. We meet the affable Saar in London, where

Panorama Documents Isr-UK. 2016. 84mins Directors/screenplay Tomer Heymann, Barak Heymann Production companies Heymann Brothers Films, Breaking Productions Producers Barak Heymann, Tomer Heymann, Alexander Bodin Saphir International sales Autlook Film Sales, welcome@autlook.com Co-director Alexander Bodin Saphir Cinematographer Itai Raziel Editors Ron Omer, Ido Mochrik, Roi Turnoy Music Eran Weitz Sound design Ronen Nagel

he sings in the Gay Men’s Chorus. He has HIV due, he says, to binges with sex and drugs after a break-up with a longtime partner, and he works in an Apple store, which we never see. What next? Always present, in background and foreground, is Saar’s religious family. We learn that he was forced out of the kibbutz where he grew up — still a source of embarrassment for his family — and that he has been in London for nearly 20 years. His mother weeps for her son’s future, yet his drill instructor father has some simple answers that could come from The Simpsons or Family Guy (“Can’t you just take a pill for this?”). He is the kind of character that you can’t make up, and the film springs to life when he’s on the screen. If that’s unconditional love, Israeli-style, with all its bristly built-in punchlines, there is another version of it in the gentle songs of the chorus in London, one of the rare places where gay men have strength in numbers. Central casting, once again, from the other side. The Heymanns distil a gay comedy-drama from Saar’s struggle to balance the two (or more) sides of his existence, and what emerges is a doc that his or anyone’s mother could watch. Less heartwarming is the perennial

story of a gay man colliding with the expectations of mainstream and conservative society. So much has changed that Israel can accept — and draft — gay soldiers into its army. So little has changed that Saar’s brother sounds as if his young family is under siege by the mere fact his brother has HIV. Production values are high, although the chorus’s sound quality could be far better, an indication that Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? is more about family than it is about friends.

SURVEILLANCE:

REVOLUTION

2017 A Film by Ben Wagner www.screendaily.com

February 16, 2016 Screen International at Berlin 11

SPOTLIGHT WILDGAZE FILMS

Building on Brooklyn With the outstanding British film Bafta win and the Oscars to come, Wildgaze Films duo Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey look back at Brooklyn’s journey, and ahead to their future slate. Matt Mueller reports

t is no surprise to hear that Wildgaze Films producers Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey are excited about this year’s Oscar ceremony. “We think we have made cinema history,” Dwyer tells Screen. “We want a statistician to sign it off for this, but so far as we know, we’re the first female producing duo to be twice nominated for best picture.” On Sunday night, the pair’s Brooklyn was up for six Baftas, and won the award for outstanding British film, beating 45 Years, Amy, Ex Machina and The Lobster. Since launching at Sundance Film Festival in 2015, the film has achieved box-office success in the US and UK, and critical acclaim across the board. Before Brooklyn, Dwyer and Posey achieved similar recognition with An Education (2009), which received three Oscar and eight Bafta nods (winning Carey Mulligan best actress at the latter). Dwyer first read Colm Toibin’s novel, about headstrong immigrant Eilis battling the heartache of leaving Ireland behind to find work and love in early 1950s New York, when it was published in 2009. She met Toibin in that city in April 2010 and optioned the book shortly afterwards. “I never like to think about it too much because the most important thing is to find a way to make that great film. But it had that potential. Adam Venit, who’s Dustin [Hoffman]’s agent at William Morris, read an early draft and said straight away, ‘That’s an Oscar-nominated role.’ Which is what we thought too,” says New Zealand-born Dwyer. Posey and Dwyer pitched “countless” financiers on the transformative opportunities the role of Eilis would offer to an actress, in terms of character depth and career boost, with similar potential to what An Education had done for Mulligan. “Saoirse [Ronan] was a phenomenal actress before our movie, but this was her first adult role,” says Dwyer. When she first began to think of casting, though, she initially ruled out Ronan, who was only 15 at the time. By the time they had shepherded the adaptation through development — with Nick Hornby adapting Toibin’s novel, and Irish theatre and film director John Crowley attached to direct — Ronan was better suited, age-wise, to play the 18 year old, and Brooklyn

Brooklyn

‘Brooklyn’s premiere was a watershed moment. It was that moment when you knew you were going to be OK’ Amanda Posey, Wildgaze Films

Amanda Posey and Finola Dwyer

12 Screen International at Berlin February 16, 2016

launched into a seven-week shoot in April 2014. Initially Dwyer had settled on $25m as the budget to “do the book justice” due to the 1950s period setting and need to shoot in two countries. In the end, Brooklyn was made for just under $11m, as a UK-Ireland-Canada co-production. “All the early budgets weren’t even working at $25m,” says Dwyer. “Christine Langan from BBC Films said to me one day — it was a great help, actually — ‘You’ll figure out how to do it.’ I didn’t want to just make it, I wanted to make it really well.” With changes to the pre-sales market

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in recent years, and without a household name in the cast, a star director or high concept, Brooklyn presented a formidable challenge for the Wildgaze pair, who as well as An Education had previously produced A Long Way Down together (Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet was produced separately by Dwyer under her Finola Dwyer Productions Ltd banner). “When we went out to market with it at the beginning, $25m, at that time, was the level prestige art movies that can break out to a bigger audience had been made at,” observes Posey. “But it was just changing and everyone said, ‘Oh, 15 is the new 25.’ In the end, you have to work with what the market can give you.” A patchwork effort Dwyer structured Brooklyn as a threeway co-production to take advantage of as much soft money as she could. In Ireland, support came from the Irish Film Board, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and a pre-sale to RTE. Having sent a look book to 20 film agencies around the world, a three-day scouting trip to Canada in November 2013 yielded backing from Telefilm Canada, a Canadian distributor in Mongrel Media and local incentives, with Dwyer settling on Montreal to double for Brooklyn. The film also shot two days in New York. The Irish and Canadian finance, combined with the UK backing from the BFI, BBC Films and the tax credit, made up $8.5m, with the remainder of the patchwork budget from pre-sales to Lionsgate UK and Transmission in Australia/New Zealand and gap financing from Ingenious. “We were a travelling group of about 14 during the shoot, and we picked up our crews in Ireland, New York and Canada,” says Dwyer. “Co-production forces you to go outside your comfort zone but the brilliant thing about it is that we couldn’t have made Brooklyn any other way — and made it to that level of ambition and production value.” HanWay Films showed an early promo to buyers at Berlin 2014, and a more extensive one at Toronto, before Brooklyn premiered on January 26, 2015, at the Eccles Theatre in Park City, sparking a standing ovation among a mainly US crowd. “It was a watershed moment,” says Posey. “It was that moment when you knew you were going to be OK.” Within 24 hours, Fox Searchlight had won a heated bidding war with The Weinstein Company and Focus Features, among others, to take US rights for $9m, in a deal orchestrated by CAA. Wildgaze slate Dwyer and Posey operate Wildgaze Films out of an office in Soho with two employees, including a head of develop-

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‘Each project is something we feel we can take all the way, and has a universality to it’ Finola Dwyer, Wildgaze Films

Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy in Their Finest Hour And A Half

Brooklyn screenwriter Nick Hornby, with director John Crowley, at Sunday’s Bafta ceremony

Director John Crowley on set

ment for film and TV. They also hire additional support when they have a film in production, for instance a post-production assistant recruited for Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest Hour And A Half. The film, which Wildgaze is co-producing with Number 9 Films and BBC Films, is currently in post; HanWay is showing a first promo at Berlin. The pair originally set up Wildgaze in 2012 with MEDIA funding for their development slate, and in 2013 were awarded money from the BFI’s Vision Awards initiative, established to support UK production companies for two years with up to $290,000 (£200,000) of slate funding. “That allowed us to take the

leap and employ a full-time head of development,” says Posey. “Before that, we’d been so focused and bespoke on the films that we hadn’t had a separate revenue stream to help us with that.” “That was extremely helpful to us,” echoes Dwyer. Future funds will come from the BFI’s lockbox for Brooklyn, and development funding for Wildgaze projects with the BBC and Film4. As well as the adaptation of Lissa Evans’ wartime novel Their Finest Hour And A Half, which they co-optioned the rights for with Number 9’s Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen when each learned of the others’ interest, projects in development include an original idea by Dwyer

that Jon Croker (The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death) is writing; a 1940s-set narrative feature from David Evans and Philippe Sands, the director and writer of the Wildgaze-produced documentary My Nazi Legacy; an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through The Madness Industry, which has been set up with Universal Pictures and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment with Kristin Gore adapting, Jay Roach directing and Scarlett Johansson attached to star. “Each project is something we feel we can take all the way, and has a universality to it,” says Dwyer. Wildgaze is also developing a Brooklyn TV spin-off, and plans its first leap into genre with an adaptation of Michelle Paver’s critically acclaimed Arctic-set ghost story Dark Matter. Their Finest Hour And A Half screenwriter Gaby Chiappe is adapting the novel. “We were attracted to it for all the same reasons we’re attracted to other stories, which is that it’s emotional, it’s psychological, it’s got wonderful characters and a brilliant setting,” says Posey. They will also go into production this year on an adaptation of Australian novelist Tim Winton’s thriller Dirt Music. It is developed with Film4 and will be an Australia-UK co-production. Director Phillip Noyce, Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Russell Crowe have all been attached to the project at various times. This latest incarnation — which Jack Thorne adapted — has yet to attach a director or star. As for whether the Brooklyn spin-off signifies a desire to develop more TV projects in future, Posey says: “From a business point of view, it would do us well to have a burgeoning TV arm of course but that’s not our approach. But there are certain stories we can see would work beautifully on TV and aren’t necessarily right for film. It’s the stories that draw us. It goes up and down, but there is much more interest now for high-quality singles or two-parters for TV, and quite a lot of stories may be well suited to that.” “We don’t have any desire to grow massively or increase the output,” adds Dwyer. “For us, it’s really about getting involved with material that we believe we can take all the way. Volume has never been our thing. You only have so many s hours in the day.” ■

February 16, 2016 Screen International at Berlin 13

Ireland hits its stride

The Irish film industry is walking tall thanks to the success of Brooklyn and Room, and a record seven titles launching at Sundance. Tom Grater looks at how Ireland aims to build on its creative prosperity

Sing Street

he news Lenny Abrahamson’s Room and John Crowley’s Brooklyn had been nominated for a clutch of Oscars — including best film and best actress, and a best director nod for Abrahamson — sparked wild celebrations in Ireland’s film industry. In addition, Paddy Breathnach’s Viva, produced by Treasure Entertainment as an Ireland-Cuba co-production and set in the Havana drag scene, made the final-nine shortlist for best foreign-language film, and Benjamin Cleary’s Stutterer is up for the best short film prize. At the recent Sundance Film Festival, where Brooklyn began its journey in 2015, a record seven Ireland productions or co-productions screened in the various sections. John Carney’s Sing Street premiered at Sundance and will open Audi Dublin International Film Festival on February 18, while Rebecca Daly’s Mammal also premiered in Park City before travelling to Göteborg International Film Festival. The Irish Film Board (IFB) is determined to harness this momentum and ensure a

14 Screen International at Berlin February 16, 2016

dynamic moment in Irish film-making can be sustained. The public funding body directly supports a significant proportion of films made in Ireland or by Irish co-producers, while the Revenue — Irish Tax & Customs administers the tax credits. The IFB’s acting chair Annie Doona and chief executive James Hickey are now calling for increased government support to develop new talent and fund future film production. “Irish films are making a significant contribution on the global stage,” says Doona. “We’re incredibly proud of that and we’re ambitious to build on the success.” Focus on local projects In January 2015, the Irish government introduced significant revisions to the tax credit for film and TV productions shooting in the country. It increased the level of relief to 32% on eligible expenditure up to $56.6m. This move was designed to put Ireland in a stronger position to attract inward investment, and was widely heralded as a positive step. Now there are calls from the IFB and

‘Irish films are making a significant contribution on the global stage. We’re incredibly proud of that’ Annie Doona, Irish Film Board

beyond for the cap on the credit to be raised further, with a view to drawing more largescale productions such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which shot some scenes on the islands of Skellig. However, with home-grown, mid-budget titles such as Room ($9.7m) and The Lobster ($4.3m) finding critical acclaim and commercial success, members of Ireland’s local industry are calling for a renewed focus on the country’s own productions. “A big Hollywood movie coming into Ireland is an easy win but you have to look at the collateral advantage,” says producer Ed Guiney of Element Pictures, who produced both The Lobster and Room. “They bring in all the heads of departments and there are no Irish producers involved. The real prize is developing the indigenous industry.” One major challenge facing the IFB is that the organisation’s governmental funding has decreased significantly over the past eight years. In 2008, the IFB’s budget was $21.8m; by 2016 that had dropped 40% to just $12.2m, although this includes a $550,000

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IRISH PRODUCTION FEATURE

‘The cuts have had material effects’ James Hickey, Irish Film Board

increase on the 2015 budget, the first rise for years and a “step in the right direction”, according to Doona. “The cuts have had material effects,” says Hickey, who believes a long-term view is needed when developing talent. “It’s never just luck, it happens over many years.” If the IFB’s budget was increased further, says Hickey, the organisation “would consider devoting a higher percentage of funding to development”. Guiney believes that would be a necessary step as “the current amount of development money spent is not enough”.

NEW IRISH PRODUCTIONS FOR 2016

The Secret Scripture (Ire) Dir Jim Sheridan Six-time Oscar nominee Sheridan directs this story of a woman (Vanessa Redgrave) who begins to write her memoirs following 40 years consigned to a psychiatric hospital. They start with a love story, amid the religious and political upheavals of Ireland in the 1920s. The younger woman is played by Rooney Mara. Produced by Noel Pearson and Rob Quigley for Ferndale Films, with financial backing from the Irish Film Board (IFB), Ingenious and Apollo Media, The Secret Scripture was shot at locations in Dublin and Kilkenny. Backed by Relativity Media, the film is currently caught up in Relativity’s bankruptcy and its release is on hold. Contact Ferndale Films

ferndale@dublin.com

who, after the death of her son, finds herself drawn to a homeless youth played by 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Barry Keoghan. German outfit Picture Tree International is handling international sales on the film, one of seven Irish titles selected for Sundance this year. Mammal will also receive Film Sales Support from European Film Promotion, an initiative designed to aid the sales of European films to North America. Contact Picture Tree International pti@picturetree-international.com

Sing Street (Ire-US-UK) Dir John Carney Once director Carney returns with this semi-autobiographical musical about a boy growing up in Dublin in the 1980s. The film premiered at Sundance and will open Audi Dublin International Film Festival on February 18. FilmNation presold the title to territories across Europe, North America and Asia. The Weinstein Company has taken rights for the US. Contact FilmNation Entertainment

Fears of regression Rebecca O’Flanagan of Treasure Entertainment, the production company behind Viva and anticipated 2016 title Handsome Devil, believes that without a long-term strategy from the government, the Irish film industry faces the possibility of regression. “The fear for us is, if the funding [for the IFB] isn’t replenished, where will we be in five years’ time? Those players like Lenny [Abrahamson] and Paddy [Breathnach] had their roots pre-crash, when the funding was more generous,” she says. O’Flanagan notes the positive mood has buoyed the energy around the industry, but fears this could be wasted without the necessary funding. “While of course there is increased ambition among the community, that ambition has to go hand-in-hand with the proper resources,” she says. Tomm Moore, director of feature animation Song Of The Sea, which was nominated for an Oscar last year, highlights the important role that successful local companies such as his Kilkenny-based studio Cartoon Saloon need to play in an industry that he believes is “hitting its stride”. “I hope we can create enough of an environment where you encourage and grow indigenous talent, where Irish directors can make their own stuff on their own terms.” Breathnach suggests this “very important moment” must be maximised by nurturing new talent. “There needs to be thought on how we can progress,” he says. “A greater engagement with talent, writers, actors, would be very valuable. We have to push beyond where we are. s That should be the vision.” ■

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info@weareﬁlmnation.com

Handsome Devil (Ire) Dir John Butler Andrew Scott, Moe Dunford, Fionn O’Shea and 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Nick Galitzine star in Butler’s story about two boys forced to share a room at their boarding school. Treasure Entertainment are producing, with financing from the IFB as well as RTE and Windmill Lane Pictures.

The Secret Scripture

Brain On Fire (Can-Ire) Dir Gerard Barrett Barrett, the director of Glassland, one of the IFB-backed titles to screen at Sundance last year, returns with this story of a young woman (Chloë Grace Moretz) who finds herself rapidly descending into insanity. Based on Susannah Cahalan’s bestselling autobiography, Brain On Fire is a Canada-Ireland co-production and was shot in Vancouver. It is produced by Broad Green Pictures, Charlize Theron’s Denver & Delilah Productions and Foundation Features. The film has IFB funding. Contact Mister Smith Entertainment

info@mistersmithent.com

Pilgrimage (Ire) Dir Brendan Muldowney

Contact Treasure Entertainment

Love & Friendship (Ire-Neth-Fr) Dir Whit Stillman Stillman reunites with his The Last Days Of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny in this period drama set in the 1790s. Filmed in Dublin in 2014, Love & Friendship is a US-Ireland co-production and has funding from various bodies including the IFB. The film premiered at Sundance, and Protagonist Pictures has already sold several international territories. A theatrical release is pencilled in for April 2016. Contact Protagonist Pictures info@protagonistpictures.com

Set in Ireland in 1209AD, this mythical adventure drama follows a group of monks who escort a powerful relic to Rome. Featuring rising star Tom Holland (whose next role is Peter Parker in the untitled Spider-Man reboot), along with Jon Bernthal and Richard Armitage, the film is produced by Dublin’s Savage Pictures and has funding from the IFB. Conor Barry and John Keville produce with Benoit Roland. XYZ handles international sales. Contact XYZ Films

The Breadwinner (Can-Ire) Dir Nora Twomey Co-produced by Irish studio Cartoon Saloon and Canadian outfit Aircraft Pictures, this animated feature tells the story of a young Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy to provide for her family when her father is imprisoned. The project, adapted from Deborah Ellis’s internationally acclaimed novel, drew the attention of Angelina Jolie, who came on board as an executive producer.

info@xyzﬁlms.cm

Mammal (Ire-Neth-Lux) Dir Rebecca Daly Daly’s 2011 debut feature, The Other Side Of Sleep, played in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. Mammal stars Rachel Griffiths as a woman

rebecca@treasure.ie

Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship

Contact Cartoon Saloon info@cartoonsaloon.ie

February 16, 2016 Screen International at Berlin 15

MARKET SCREENING TODAY

Cinematography: Oleg Mutu RSC (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, In the Fog) Cast: Magdalena Cielecka (Katyn), Julia Kijowska, Dorota Kolak, Marta Nieradkiewicz (Floating Skyscapers), Andrzej Chyra (In the Name of, 11 Minutes, Elles) Produced by: Mañana, TVP S.A., Common Ground Pictures, Film Väst

Dir. Tomasz Wasilewski Poland, Sweden 2016 /104 min. / drama

UNITED STATES OF LOVE BY TOMASZ WASILEWSKI

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS FRI

19 FEB