05/08/2019 - The firm is managing international sales for Twelve Thousand, Isadora’s Children and Technoboss, three films which it will also be distributing in France

Active in production, distribution and - for the past two years - international sales, the Marseille-based company Shellac, steered by Thomas Ordonneau, will be arriving at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival (running 7 to 17 August) well-armed, wielding no less than three titles which are all in the running for the Golden Leopard 2019 (including one co-production). The firm is also heading up French distribution of these works, as well as piloting worldwide sales for two of the three.

Shellac is selling and is also set to release as of November in French cinemas Twelve Thousand [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the first fiction feature by Nadège Trebal, following on from her documentaries Bleu pétrole (2012) and Scrap Yard [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Berlinale Forum 2014). Featuring in the cast are Belgium’s Arieh Worthalter, alongside the filmmaker herself, Liv Henneguier, Juliette Augier, Françoise Lebrun and Florence Thomassin, among others. Written by the filmmaker, the story centres around the character of Frank who loses his black market job and, believing that he and Maroussia will no longer be able to love one another in the way they once did, ups and leaves in order to earn as much as his partner: twelve thousand - just enough for the two of them to live for a year. No more and no less. Over the course of his proletarian odyssey, he becomes the hero that he always dreamed of being. But it comes at a price… The film is produced by Mathieu Bompoint on behalf of Mezzanine Films and by Gilles Sandoz on behalf of Maïa Productions. The music, meanwhile, is composed by Rodophe Burger.

Shellac is likewise touting Isadora’s Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel
film profile], the 4th feature film by Damien Manivel following A Young Poet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (awarded a Special Mention at the Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present section in 2014), The Park [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (which screened in the Cannes’ ACID line-up in 2016) and The Night I Swam [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel, Kohei Igara…
film profile] (co-directed with Kohei Igarashi) which had its world premiere in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons competition in 2017. The movie stars Agathe Bonitzer, Manon Carpentier, Marika Zizzy and American dancer and choreographer Elsa Wolliaston. Written by the director and Julien Dieudonné, the story unfolds around the farewell solo intitled "Mother" which the legendary dancer Isadora Duncan choreographed following the death of her two children. A whole century later, four women are overwhelmed in their discovery of this piece… Produced by MLD Films in co-production with the JeonJu Cinema Project, the full-length film will also be distributed by Shellac in France as of November.

And finally, Shellac will also make an appearance in Locarno’s international competition with Technoboss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Nicolau
film profile] by João Nicolau (John From [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], The Sword and the Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The film was co-produced by the French firm in league with Portugal’s O Som e a Fúria, and the former will also be releasing the title in France as of December. Sales, meanwhile, are in the hands of German outfit The Match Factory.

For the record, in France this year, 31 July, Shellac released Alain Raoust’s As Happy As Possible [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (which opened the Cannes ACID line-up in May this year) and also co-produced Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden [+see also:
film review
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interview: Pietro Marcello
film profile] alongside Italy and Germany. The latter will enjoy its world premiere in competition at the 76th Venice Film Festival (running 28 August to 7 September) ahead of its release in France on 16 October, courtesy of the same French firm.

(Translated from French)