10/11/2023 - Stephan Komandarev, Kilian Riedhof, Nae Caranfil, Luàna Bajrami, Leni Huyghe, Marko Šantić and Ferit Kilic are vying for support grants, while five projects are partaking in the Croatian Focus

Director Stephan Komandarev, whose project Made in EU has been selected

An integral part of the 24th Arras Film Festival (3-12 November – see the article and the interview), the 12th edition of Arras Days will lift the veil on seven projects at the writing stage that are set to be pitched on Saturday 11 November in front of a jury consisting of three professionals (Croatia’s Danijel Pek, Luxembourg’s Meinolf Zurhorst and France’s Hélène Auclaire) and that will be locking horns for two development support grants (courtesy of the festival and the town of Arras). Equally conceived as a co-production and financing platform, Arras Days will also allow producers, distributors and sales agents interested in these projects to discover them in person, on the ground.

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Standing out among the projects in the showcase are the upcoming features by Bulgaria’s Stephan Komandarev (winner of the Crystal Globe at this year’s Karlovy Vary with Blaga's Lessons [+see also:
film review
interview: Stephan Komandarev
film profile] and selected in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2017 with Directions [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephan Komandarev
film profile]), Germany’s Kilian Riedhof (particularly popular with his last two works, Stella. A Life [+see also:
film review
interview: Kilian Riedhof
film profile] and You Will Not Have My Hate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kilian Riedhof
film profile]) and French-Kosovar director Luàna Bajrami (who rose to fame in the 2021 Directors’ Fortnight with The Hill Where Lionesses Roar [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luana Bajrami
film profile] and who took part in Orizzonti Extra at this year’s Venice with Phantom Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). Also set to be pitched are the new projects by Romania’s Nae Caranfil (who rose to fame in the 1993 Directors’ Fortnight with Sundays on Leave and was in competition at Locarno in 2007 with The Rest Is Silence [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Croatia’s Marko Šantić (popular with Wake Me [+see also:
film review
interview: Marko Šantić
film profile], among other titles), not to mention two debut feature-length fiction projects helmed by Turkey’s Ferit Kilic and Belgium’s Leni Huyghe.

It's worth noting that the pitching session will be preceded by a round-table on the topic of "How Can We Support Emerging Industry Profiles?" with screenwriter Fadette Drouard, Georges Goldenstern (the former director of Cinéfondation) and Jean-Loup Ballard (Pictanovo).

Lastly, on Sunday 12 November, Arras Days will shine a spotlight on Croatia via the presentation of five titles: two works in progress (directed by Laura Pascu and Bruno Ankovic) and three projects in development (with Hrvoje Hribar, Vanja Juranić and Igor Jelinović at the helm).

Here is the full list of projects:

Arras Days #12 Pitching

Dancing Angels - Ferit Kilic (Turkey)
Production: Karma Films
After a failed suicide attempt, Ali (15) is enrolled in a private school for a fresh start. Although he finds temporary refuge in dance classes, much to his father’s disapproval, he has to deal with a bully, Tarık. The bullying intensifies.

The Center of the World - Marko Šantić (Croatia)
In the middle of Dalmatia proudly stands the city of Split, once a transit port and today one of the main destinations for young partygoers. Over the course of one tourist season, the film follows three rental-property owners, Antea, Elza, and Darko, along with a resident of the city centre, Snježana, as they witness the gradual transformation of their own city.

The Host - Nae Caranfil (Romania)
Production: Tudor Giurgiu (Libra Film)
An elderly man suffering from Alzheimer's disease persuades a young woman to work for him as a care assistant. Now that the COVID pandemic has been declared, she wonders whether the coronavirus could be helping to hasten the old man's death...

Real Faces - Leni Huyghe (Belgium)
Production: Mirage Films
Julia (29), an ambitious casting agent, relocates to Brussels after a breakup. Struggling to build a new life, she masks her insecurities behind a façade of success and happiness. She meets reclusive microbiologist Eliott (32) and forms an unexpected, authentic friendship that inspires her to break free from societal expectations.

Salvation - Kilian Riedhof (Germany)
2048: the climate crisis is causing immense migration flows and distribution challenges. Imany, a refugee child from Africa, lives in this world on the brink of disaster. She is a highly gifted outsider with a hypersensitive sense for the suffering of people and nature. When the neoliberal US president declares the United States' withdrawal from the global climate agreement, Imany is haunted by a terrible vision: she foresees the end of creation.

Made in EU - Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria)
Iva (43), a seamstress in a small town, is forced to hide the fact that she’s ill in order to keep her job, but after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in town, all of the blame falls on her as she’s demonised by the community.

À l’Est des limbes - Luàna Bajrami (Kosovo/France)
After six years, Julian returns to Kosovo with his Parisian friends, to his village and his family that he left behind at the age of 17. His return confronts him with his adolescent memories and stirs up his uncertainties. The unprecedented encounter between French youth and Kosovar youth echoes the duality of his own condition as an immigrant. In particular, he meets up with Mona, who enables him to rediscover his buried "self". A romance blossoms between them, amid the turmoil of their youth, the weight of their families and the eternal question of where they fit in.

Croatian Focus

Work in Progress

Between Us - Laura Pascu
The film delves into the lives of a young couple who, after several years together, must confront a relationship crisis.

Celebration - Bruno Ankovic
Based on the novel by Damir Karakaš, the film shows 20 years in the life of Mijo and his family in a poor Croatian village. The non-linear and elliptical plot gradually forms a clear picture that testifies to the eternal cycle of history and the impossibility of real change in the Balkans.

In Development

Black Swan or How to Steal the Wind - Hrvoje Hribar
A big-time banker from the Croatian capital gets transferred to a remote provincial-branch office. A country girl climbs the ladder in politics. In a lawless county on the EU border, the two of them decide to make it, and they make it big. Until they don't any more.

Mom, Dad and I - Vanja Juranić
Dasha arrives at Zagreb airport from Sweden, where she has been living and working as a scientist for many years. Her dad is waiting for her and takes her to the family home. She has come home due to a family emergency. Her mother has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is scheduled to have urgent surgery in a few days’ time.

Honey Bunny - Igor Jelinović
Anita, aka Koke, is an irritating aunt who tramples on everyone (including her only sister’s family) who gets in her way as she strives to attain her much-desired family inheritance, which consists of an attractive summer house on the island of Hvar.

(Translated from French)