07/02/2020 - The group helmed by Pamela Leu is selling Swiss director Andrea Štaka’s new work, the front-runner in a hefty line-up which includes Elie Wajeman, Ève Deboise and Éric Gravel’s latest offerings

The European Film Market - set to unfold at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival (running 20 February to 1 March) - is shaping up to be an especially busy one for international sales firm Be For Films, the Belgian subsidiary of the French group Playtime, helmed by Pamela Leu, who will be negotiating on behalf of 16 screening or upcoming titles. Standing tall amongst them is Mare [+see also:
film review
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interview: Andrea Staka
film profile] by Switzerland’s Andrea Štaka (who was honoured with the Golden Leopard for Fräulein [+see also:
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film profile] in Locarno 2006, where she also competed in 2014 with Cure – The Life of Another [+see also:
film review
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interview: Andrea Staka
film profile]) which will enjoy its world premiere in the Panorama section.

Written by the director herself (also the co-author of Mary Queen of Scots [+see also:
film review
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film profile]), the story revolves around Mare, who has never travelled by aeroplane despite living right next-door to the airport with her husband and their three teenage children. She loves her family and takes care of them, but at times she feels like a stranger in her own home. Who are these people with whom she is sharing her life? Mare catches herself gazing at the planes overhead, longing for change and craving the unknown. When a young man moves into the house next-door, she decides to put her life to the test… Starring Marija Škaričić (the European Film Promotion’s Shooting Star of 2011, who also headlined Andrea Štaka’s two earlier films and garnered acclaim in Mother of Asphalt [+see also:
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film profile] and The Priest’s Children [+see also:
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interview: Vinko Bresan
film profile]), Goran Navojec, Mateusz Kościukiewicz and Mirjana Karanović, Mare was produced by Thomas Imbach and by the filmmaker herself on behalf of the Swiss outfit Okofilm Productions, and by Tena Gojić for Croatian firm Dinaridi.

The Be For Films line-up also includes three French films to be followed very closely: A Night Doctor [+see also:
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interview: Elie Wajeman
film profile] by Elie Wajeman, which has just entered into post-production, Little Lesson of Love [+see also:
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film profile] by Ève Deboise, which is close to wrapping filming, and À plein temps [+see also:
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interview: Eric Gravel
film profile] by Éric Gravel (who made a name for himself in 2017 with his first feature Crash Test Aglaé [+see also:
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film profile]), which will commence filming in April with Laure Calamy playing the lead.

In the category of feature films set to enjoy their market premieres at a later date we find Just Kids by France’s Christophe Blanc (article – due to be released in France on 22 April), Into Dad’s Woods [+see also:
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interview: Véro Cratzborn
film profile] by Belgian director Vero Cratzborn (hitting French cinemas on 27 May) and The Last Tempation of the Belgians [+see also:
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interview: Jan Bucquoy
film profile] by her compatriot Jan Bucquoy.

Back in Berlin, meanwhile, Be For Films will be organising market screenings for titles recently selected for Rotterdam (Working Girls [+see also:
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interview: Anne Paulicevich and Frédér…
film profile] by the duo Anne Paulicévich - Frédéric Fonteyne, Tench [+see also:
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interview: Patrice Toye
film profile] by Patrick Toye and Cleo [+see also:
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film profile] by Eva Cools), Venice (The End of Love [+see also:
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film profile] by Keren Ben Rafael), Toronto (The Barefoot Emperor [+see also:
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interview: Jessica Woodworth
film profile] by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens) and even Tokyo (Towards The Battle [+see also:
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film profile] by Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux), without forgetting Kuessipan by Canada’s Myriam Verreault and the French documentary Little Ballerinas [+see also:
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film profile] by Anne-Claire Dolivet.

(Translated from French)