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BERLINALE 2016 France

Rachid Bouchareb joins duo Ducastel-Martineau in the Panorama line-up

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- The Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival will feature Road to Istanbul and Paris 05:59

Rachid Bouchareb joins duo Ducastel-Martineau in the Panorama line-up
Road to Istanbul by Rachid Bouchareb

Already very well represented in the competition (see article) and the Forum (see news item), the contingent of French films chosen for the 66th Berlin International Film Festival (which will be held from 11-21 February 2016) has been bolstered by two majority co-productions: Road to Istanbul [+see also:
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by Rachid Bouchareb and Paris 05:59 [+see also:
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by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau), and seven minority co-productions (including two documentaries) selected for the Panorama section.

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A regular at the Berlinale, where he has had films in competition three times (with Little Senegal in 2001, London River [+see also:
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in 2009 and Two Men In Town [+see also:
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in 2014), this year Rachid Bouchareb will present the world premiere of Road to Istanbul in the festival’s Panorama section. Produced for television by 3B Productions with Arte (which will air the film in March), Belgian company Scope, Wallonie Bruxelles Images and Tassili, the film stars Astrid Whettnall, Patricia Ide, Pauline Burlet and Abel Jafri. Written by the director with Yasmina Khadra, Zoé Galeron and Olivier Lorelle, the story centres around a woman whose life is turned upside down when her 20-year-old only child leaves to join Islamic State, prompting her to go to look for her in Syria. International sales of the film will be handled by Elle Driver.

Berlin will be the venue of another world premiere for two familiar faces at the Festival: Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, who will be presenting Paris 05:59 [+see also:
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. Having already participated in the German Festival four times (with The Perfect Guy in competition in 1998, and The Adventures of Felix, Cockles and Muscles and Family Tree [+see also:
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in the Panorama section in 2000, 2005 and 2010 respectively), this time the filmmaking duo has written a story about the instinctive encounter between two men in a sex club and, once the fit of desire and elation of this first moment passes, the way they face up to their burgeoning love in the empty streets of Paris by night. Produced by Emmanuel Chaumet for Ecce Films (which is handling international sales directly), the feature will be released in France on 15 June by Epicentre Films.

The Panorama section will also feature five minority French co-productions alongside the fictional feature films: The First, The Last [+see also:
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interview: Bouli Lanners
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by Belgian director Bouli Lanners (co-produced by ADCB Films with international sales by Wild Bunch, which will release the film in France on 27 January), All of a Sudden [+see also:
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interview: Aslı Özge
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 by Turkish filmmaker Asli Özge (which was co-produced by Haut et Court with Germany and the Netherlands and is being sold by Memento Films International), The Wounded Angel [+see also:
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by Emir Baigazin (co-produced with Kazakhstan and Germany by Capricci Films, which is also handling international sales, and supported by the CNC’s aid for world cinema) and two co-productions by Arizona Productions (see article): I, Olga Hepnarová [+see also:
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interview: Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda
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by Czech duo Tomas Weinreb - Petr Kazda (news item) and Much Ado about Nothing [+see also:
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by Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Fernández Almendras (news item) which will have its European premiere at Berlin after being featured in competition at Sundance in the coming days.

Finally, the Panorama Dokumente section is set to include two minority French documentary co-productions: Mariupolis [+see also:
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interview: Mantas Kvedaravicius
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 by Mantas Kvedaravicius (co-produced by Rouge International with Lithuania, Germany and Ukraine) and Don't Blink - Robert Frank [+see also:
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by Laura Israel (unveiled at the New York Film Festival and co-produced by Arte France with the United States).

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(Translated from French)

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