07/05/2024 - The French sales agent will wager on When the Light Breaks in the Un Certain Regard section, This Life of Mine in the Directors’ Fortnight, and The Brink of Dreams in Critics’ Week

The final preparations are underway, ahead of the Marché du Film unspooling within the 77th Cannes Film Festival (running 14 – 25 May), for French international sales agent The Party Film Sales (directed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier), who are set to negotiate on behalf of 12 titles, of which three are screening in the Croisette’s various selections.

First and foremost in the line-up is When the Light Breaks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] by Icelandic director Runar Runarsson, who’s honoured with the opening of the Official’s Selection’s Un Certain Regard section. This is the director’s 4th feature film after Volcano [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (screened in the 2011 Directors’ Fortnight), Sparrows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Atli Óskar Fjalarsson
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] (triumphant in San Sebastián 2015) and Echo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] (which competed in Locarno in 2019). The movie is produced by Iceland (Compass Films and Halibut), Holland (Revolver), Croatia (MP Filmska Produkcija) and France (Eaux Vives), and is distributed in France by Jour2Fête.

The Party Film Sales team steered by Estelle de Araujo and Samuel Blanc will also be pinning its hopes on another movie awarded an opening slot: This Life of Mine [+see also:
film review
film profile] by the late French filmmaker Sophie Fillières, which is set to screen in the Director’s Fortnight.

The third ace in the showcase is the documentary The Brink of Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir
film profile] by Egyptian duo Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, which is competing in Critics’ Week. Produced by Egypt (Felluca Films) alongside France (Dolce Vita Films), Denmark (Magma Film), Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the film takes us to a village in southern Egypt where a group of young women rebel by forming an all-female street theatre company. Dreaming of becoming actresses, dancers and singers, they challenge their Coptic families and the locals in their region with their unexpected performances.

On the post-production side, The Party Films Sales will be pressing on with presales on Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s French-Tunisian-Italian feature Aïcha (article – the filmmaker’s second feature after the multi-award-winning work A Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehdi M Barsaoui and Sami B…
film profile]), South African director Pia Marais’ Transamazonia, and French filmmaker Stéphane Ly-Cuong’s In the Nguyen Kitchen (article). Stealing focus in pre-production is You Shall Not Make an Image, which will be multi-award-winning Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s next fiction feature following her acclaimed documentary Four Daughters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile], and, in production, Anaïs Caura and Joëlle Oosterlinck’s Suzanne, which is a documentary blending animation and archive material and charting the life of Suzanne Noël (1878-1954). A brilliant surgeon and emancipated woman at the beginning of the 20th century, Suzanne saw cosmetic surgery as a way to redress injustices and to make people more beautiful, more equal and happier. She met with increasing success in her professional life following the First World War, but her private life veered towards drama... Production comes courtesy of French firms Anoki and Vivement Lundi!.

Last but not least, market screenings are on the agenda for the documentaries The Flats [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Italy’s Alessandra Celesia (victorious at CPH:DOX) and Misty - The Erroll Garner Story by French-Swiss director Georges Gachot, as well as for Demba [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Senegal’s Mamadou Dia (which world premiered in Berlin’s Encounters competition) and for Gold Songs by Portuguese director Ico Costa.

(Translated from French)