10/04/2019 - The upcoming films by Nadav Lapid, Leyla Bouzid and Just Philippot will also be co-produced by the French-German channel

Arte France Cinéma’s (managed by Olivier Père) first selection committee of 2019 has decided to get involved in the co-production and pre-purchasing of four projects. Standing out among them is Serre moi fort [+see also:
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interview: Mathieu Amalric
interview: Mathieu Amalric
film profile] in competition in 2010, winning the Best Director Award into the bargain; The Blue Room [+see also:
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interview: Mathieu Amalric
film profile] and Barbara [+see also:
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The cast of Serre moi fort includes Luxembourg’s Vicky Krieps (popular in Phantom Thread and in The Young Karl Marx [+see also:
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interview: Lukas Dhont
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interview: Nabil Ayouch
film profile], soon to hit the cinema listings in Un monde plus grand). An adaptation by Amalric himself of the stage play Je reviens de loin by Claudine Galea, the story revolves around the departure of a woman.

Produced by Yaël Fogiel and Laetitia Gonzalez for Les Films du Poisson, Serre moi fort has already secured an advance on receipts from the CNC, and will be co-produced by Germany’s Lupa Film and by Gaumont (which will be in charge of the French distribution and the international sales). The shoot will take place during several different seasons, in the coming months of May, November and January.

Arte France Cinéma has also selected Ahed's Knee [+see also:
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interview: Nadav Lapid
film profile] by Nadav Lapid, who won the Golden Bear at Berlin this year with Synonyms [+see also:
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film profile]. Produced by France’s Les Films du Bal and Israel’s Pie Films, the film, which will begin shooting in December 2019, is based on a recent event. A filmmaker out on his own in the desert throws himself headlong into two battles doomed to failure: one a fight against the death of freedom in his country, and the other a fight against the death of his mother.

Arte France Cinéma will also be throwing its weight behind Une histoire d’amour et de désir, the second feature by French-Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid, following As I Open My Eyes [+see also:
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interview: Leyla Bouzid
film profile]. Produced by Blue Monday Productions, the film, the shoot for which will kick off in France at the end of August, will paint a portrait of Ahmed, a young Frenchman of Algerian heritage, at a crucial moment of his sensual awakening. Through his decisive encounter with Farah, a young woman freshly arrived from Tunis, and through his contact with erotic Arabic literature, he will become emancipated and start to question what he believes are his roots.

The fourth movie selected in this session is a feature debut, The Swarm [+see also:
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interview: Just Philippot
film profile] by Just Philippot. Written by Jérôme Genevray and Franck Victor, the story is centred on a single mother who, in order to save her farm from bankruptcy, breeds edible grasshoppers and starts to develop a strange obsessive connection with them. She will have to contend with the hostility of the farmers in the region and that of her children, who no longer recognise her. The movie, staged by Capricci Production and The Jokers Films, will be shot in August and September.

As a reminder, Arte France Cinéma is supporting the upcoming films by Céline Sciamma, Mia Hansen-Løve, Arnaud Desplechin, Bertrand Bonello, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Lav Diaz, Lisandro Alonso, Miguel Gomes, Marco Bellocchio, Philippe Garrel, Leos Carax, Corneliu Porumboiu, Diao Yi'nan, Cédric Kahn, Patricio Guzmán, Mati Diop, Nicolas Pariser, Arthur Harari, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmèche, Vincent Le Port, Thomas Balmès, Hafsia Herzi, Manele Labidi, Chen Bo Yilin, Dror Moreh, and duo Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, as well as a number of animated movies helmed by Florence Miailhe, Pierre Földes, and Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mevellec.

(Translated from French)