A pair of actors who hail from Cannes Film Festival award-winning projects — Anamaria Marinca (Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and Jean-Marc Barr (Lars Von Trier’s Europa) — are teaming to star in a new film that marks an official collaboration between France and Ireland.
The project is White Friar and will mark the feature directorial debut of actor-turned-filmmaker Ivan Murphy. Described as a romantic thriller, White Friar is inspired by the life of Father Tom Murphy, an Irish Catholic priest who also served as a wing commander in the Royal Air Force during WWII and his relationship with Eva Hofer, a Hungarian Jew living in Vienna. Per the official synopsis, the film “examines morality, sexuality and identity.”
Jean-Marc Barr
Ivan Murphy, who happens to be the grand nephew of Father Tom Murphy, penned the screenplay. He turned up in Cannes on Friday to sign the co-production agreement...
The project is White Friar and will mark the feature directorial debut of actor-turned-filmmaker Ivan Murphy. Described as a romantic thriller, White Friar is inspired by the life of Father Tom Murphy, an Irish Catholic priest who also served as a wing commander in the Royal Air Force during WWII and his relationship with Eva Hofer, a Hungarian Jew living in Vienna. Per the official synopsis, the film “examines morality, sexuality and identity.”
Jean-Marc Barr
Ivan Murphy, who happens to be the grand nephew of Father Tom Murphy, penned the screenplay. He turned up in Cannes on Friday to sign the co-production agreement...
- 5/21/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"We did everything we could, right?" Modern Films in the UK has revealed an official UK trailer for Silent Land, a Polish drama set on an Italian island. This originally premiered at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival last year, and it has been showing at many fests including Zurich, Chicago, Göteborg, Thessaloniki, and at the New Horizons Film Festival in Poland. A perfect couple rents a holiday home on a sunny Italian island. The reality does not live up to their expectations when they find out the pool is broken. Ignorant of the fact that the island faces a water shortage, they ask to fix it. The presence of a stranger invades the couple's idea of safety and starts a chain of events, which makes them act irrationally, leading them to the darkest place in their relationship. The film stars Dobromir Dymecki, Agnieszka Żulewska, Jean Marc Barr, Alma Jodorowsky, and Marcello Romolo.
- 8/8/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Nejc Gazvoda, whose previous films include “A Trip” and “Dual,” has started shooting “Father Figure” in his home town, Novo Mesto, Slovenia. The film will be shot in 25 days and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2023, online news service Film New Europe reports.
“Father Figure” is an absurdist tale, written by Gazvoda, which follows a mother and her son who move from Ljubljana to a small town after the mother’s divorce. Jan is in his final year of elementary school, and Maja is a psychologist at the same school. The film begins with the reopening of schools after the end of the pandemic, but things do not seem to be the way they were before.
“ ‘Father Figure’ is a film about a particular period (the middle of 2021), set in an elementary school, and all the issues it deals with are concrete: peer violence, loneliness, dignity. At the same time,...
“Father Figure” is an absurdist tale, written by Gazvoda, which follows a mother and her son who move from Ljubljana to a small town after the mother’s divorce. Jan is in his final year of elementary school, and Maja is a psychologist at the same school. The film begins with the reopening of schools after the end of the pandemic, but things do not seem to be the way they were before.
“ ‘Father Figure’ is a film about a particular period (the middle of 2021), set in an elementary school, and all the issues it deals with are concrete: peer violence, loneliness, dignity. At the same time,...
- 4/21/2022
- by Damijan Vinter
- Variety Film + TV
Dobromir Dymecki and Agnieszka Zulewska as Adam and Anna in Silent Land
Although Agnieszka Woszczynska and I have spent a few days arranging to meet to discuss her new film, Silent Land, which is screening as part of the Glasgow Film Festival, I’m honestly surprised that she makes it. It’s a very difficult time for her. She’s in Warsaw, which sits on a long road which runs east across the border with Ukraine. Somewhere along that road lies a column of Russian tanks, slowly moving westward. With friends in vulnerable situations, and not feeling very secure herself, she tells me that it’s hard to focus on promoting the film, but she seems to appreciate the distraction.
Though it focuses on just one couple and the decisions they make or fail to make after an accident at their holiday home, Silent Land is a film about big issues and,...
Although Agnieszka Woszczynska and I have spent a few days arranging to meet to discuss her new film, Silent Land, which is screening as part of the Glasgow Film Festival, I’m honestly surprised that she makes it. It’s a very difficult time for her. She’s in Warsaw, which sits on a long road which runs east across the border with Ukraine. Somewhere along that road lies a column of Russian tanks, slowly moving westward. With friends in vulnerable situations, and not feeling very secure herself, she tells me that it’s hard to focus on promoting the film, but she seems to appreciate the distraction.
Though it focuses on just one couple and the decisions they make or fail to make after an accident at their holiday home, Silent Land is a film about big issues and,...
- 3/6/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Spanish outfit scooped up rights to Aga Woszczyńska’s Toronto title Silent Land and Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection.
Spain’s Reverso Films has scooped up rights to Aga Woszczyńska’s Toronto title Silent Land and Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection, both being sold by Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales at the EFM.
New Europe is also reporting a Romanian pre-sale to Follow Art Distribution for Dorota Kobiela’s hand-painted animated feature. The Peasants. The ambitiousu film will be Kobiela’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent.
Meanwhile Japan’s Skouil and the former Yugoslav...
Spain’s Reverso Films has scooped up rights to Aga Woszczyńska’s Toronto title Silent Land and Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection, both being sold by Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales at the EFM.
New Europe is also reporting a Romanian pre-sale to Follow Art Distribution for Dorota Kobiela’s hand-painted animated feature. The Peasants. The ambitiousu film will be Kobiela’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent.
Meanwhile Japan’s Skouil and the former Yugoslav...
- 2/12/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Spanish outfit scooped up rights to Aga Woszczyńska’s Toronto title Silent Land and Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection.
Spain’s Reverso Films has scooped up rights to Aga Woszczyńska’s Toronto title Silent Land and Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection, both being sold by Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales at the EFM.
New Europe is also reporting a Romanian pre-sale to Follow Art Distribution for Dorota Kobiela’s hand-painted animated feature. The Peasants. The ambitiousu film will be Kobiela’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent.
Meanwhile Japan’s Skouil and the former Yugoslav...
Spain’s Reverso Films has scooped up rights to Aga Woszczyńska’s Toronto title Silent Land and Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Reflection, both being sold by Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales at the EFM.
New Europe is also reporting a Romanian pre-sale to Follow Art Distribution for Dorota Kobiela’s hand-painted animated feature. The Peasants. The ambitiousu film will be Kobiela’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent.
Meanwhile Japan’s Skouil and the former Yugoslav...
- 2/12/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Samuel Theis’ “Softie” won the top prize at the 62nd Thessaloniki Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday night with a ceremony in Greece’s second city.
The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week section, was awarded the Golden Alexander and a €10,000 cash prize by a jury comprised of writer-director Nanouk Leopold, sound designer Roland Vajs and actor Michelle Valley.
The Special Jury Award was given to “Clara Sola,” by Natalie Álvarez Mesén, while the Special Jury Award for best director went to Lorenzo Vigas for “The Box.”
The award for best actress went to Sofia Kokkali for her performance in “Moon, 66 Questions,” by director Jacqueline Lentzou. Aliocha Reinert won the prize for best actor for his role in Golden Alexander winner “Softie.” The award for best screenplay went to Laurynas Bareiša for his film “Pilgrims,” while a special mention was given to Alexandre Koberidze for “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?...
The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week section, was awarded the Golden Alexander and a €10,000 cash prize by a jury comprised of writer-director Nanouk Leopold, sound designer Roland Vajs and actor Michelle Valley.
The Special Jury Award was given to “Clara Sola,” by Natalie Álvarez Mesén, while the Special Jury Award for best director went to Lorenzo Vigas for “The Box.”
The award for best actress went to Sofia Kokkali for her performance in “Moon, 66 Questions,” by director Jacqueline Lentzou. Aliocha Reinert won the prize for best actor for his role in Golden Alexander winner “Softie.” The award for best screenplay went to Laurynas Bareiša for his film “Pilgrims,” while a special mention was given to Alexandre Koberidze for “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?...
- 11/14/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
New Europe Film Sales has closed more deals for “Leave No Traces,” from Polish director Jan P. Matuszyński (“The Last Family”), which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival and will represent Poland in the 2022 Academy Awards race.
Produced by Aurum Film, the production house behind Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” pic has sold to Estonia (Estin Film), Slovakia (Slovak Film Clubs Assn.), former Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Portugal (Films4You) and Spain (Filmin).
New Europe previously sealed deals for the film in France (Memento Films Distribution), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), U.K. and Ireland (Modern Films), Lithuania (Scanorama), Hungary (Mozinet), Greece (Cinobo), Sweden (Lucky Dogs) and Czech Republic (Aero).
Set in Warsaw in the 1980s, “Leave No Traces” is based on the real-life story of a young man (Tomasz Ziętek) who witnesses the fatal beating of his friend (Mateusz Górski) by the police. Determined to testify about the killing in court,...
Produced by Aurum Film, the production house behind Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” pic has sold to Estonia (Estin Film), Slovakia (Slovak Film Clubs Assn.), former Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Portugal (Films4You) and Spain (Filmin).
New Europe previously sealed deals for the film in France (Memento Films Distribution), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), U.K. and Ireland (Modern Films), Lithuania (Scanorama), Hungary (Mozinet), Greece (Cinobo), Sweden (Lucky Dogs) and Czech Republic (Aero).
Set in Warsaw in the 1980s, “Leave No Traces” is based on the real-life story of a young man (Tomasz Ziętek) who witnesses the fatal beating of his friend (Mateusz Górski) by the police. Determined to testify about the killing in court,...
- 11/3/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Heartstone premiered at Venice Days in 2016 and won more than 50 festival awards around the globe.
Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales has boarded international sales for Icelandic drama Beautiful Beings, directed Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson.
The director’s debut feature Heartstone premiered at Venice Days in 2016 and won more than 50 festival awards around the globe.
Beautiful Beings is presented today during the C EU Soon works-in-progress showcase at Mia in Rome.
The story follows Addi, a teenage boy raised by a clairvoyant mother, who adopts a bullied kid into his group of violent misfits. When the...
Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales has boarded international sales for Icelandic drama Beautiful Beings, directed Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson.
The director’s debut feature Heartstone premiered at Venice Days in 2016 and won more than 50 festival awards around the globe.
Beautiful Beings is presented today during the C EU Soon works-in-progress showcase at Mia in Rome.
The story follows Addi, a teenage boy raised by a clairvoyant mother, who adopts a bullied kid into his group of violent misfits. When the...
- 10/15/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has boarded Thomas Hardiman’s debut feature Medusa Deluxe ahead of the film taking part in the BFI London Film Festival Works-in-Progress showcase.
Pic is a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition. Extravagance and excess collide, as the death of one of their own sows seeds of division in a community whose passion for hair verges on obsession. Delivery is scheduled for 2022.
The film is produced by Michael Elliott, Louise Palmkvist Hansen and Lee Groombridge and is an Emu Films production. The company’s recent credits include Terence Davies’ Benediction, and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series.
New Europe recently premiered two Venice Competition titles: Reflection by Valentyn Vasyanovych and Leave No Traces by Jan P. Matuszyński, as well as the TIFF Platform title Silent Land by Aga Woszczyńska.
Medusa Deluxe was developed and financed by the BFI and BBC Film,...
Pic is a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition. Extravagance and excess collide, as the death of one of their own sows seeds of division in a community whose passion for hair verges on obsession. Delivery is scheduled for 2022.
The film is produced by Michael Elliott, Louise Palmkvist Hansen and Lee Groombridge and is an Emu Films production. The company’s recent credits include Terence Davies’ Benediction, and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series.
New Europe recently premiered two Venice Competition titles: Reflection by Valentyn Vasyanovych and Leave No Traces by Jan P. Matuszyński, as well as the TIFF Platform title Silent Land by Aga Woszczyńska.
Medusa Deluxe was developed and financed by the BFI and BBC Film,...
- 10/8/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
London-based Modern Films has bought U.K.-Ireland rights for “Silent Land,” the feature debut of Polish filmmaker Aga Woszczyńska, which played in competition at the recently wrapped Zurich Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s international trailer.
Set in Italy, the slow-burn drama follows a couple whose summer holiday goes terribly wrong when Rahim (Ibrahim Keshk), an illegal immigrant hired to fix the pool in the house they paid for, suddenly dies. Produced by Lava Films, Kino Produzioni and I/O Post, with world sales handled by New Europe Film Sales, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Zurich fest, Woszczyńska described the refugee crisis at the heart of her film as a “present-day plague.” “I would like for ‘Silent Land’ to make people more socially sensitive and not just close themselves off in their homes,...
Set in Italy, the slow-burn drama follows a couple whose summer holiday goes terribly wrong when Rahim (Ibrahim Keshk), an illegal immigrant hired to fix the pool in the house they paid for, suddenly dies. Produced by Lava Films, Kino Produzioni and I/O Post, with world sales handled by New Europe Film Sales, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Zurich fest, Woszczyńska described the refugee crisis at the heart of her film as a “present-day plague.” “I would like for ‘Silent Land’ to make people more socially sensitive and not just close themselves off in their homes,...
- 10/4/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Polish filmmaker Aga Woszczyńska – together with co-writer Piotr Litwin – started to work on the script of her first feature film “Silent Land” in 2016, and notes that since then, her film – which centers on the world’s response to migrants – has sadly become even more timely.
Set in Italy, the slow-burning drama sees a couple whose summer holiday goes terribly wrong when Rahim (Ibrahim Keshk), an illegal immigrant hired to fix the pool in the house they paid for, suddenly dies. But Woszczyńska views her film as a humanistic rather than a political statement.
“I don’t want to blame just Italy, but the whole of Europe. The whole world, which stays silent,” she tells Variety.
“When Afghanistan desperately needs our help, we are closing our eyes and our borders – just like [my characters] Adam and Anna. What is currently happening, the whole situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, it’s something worse than barbarism,...
Set in Italy, the slow-burning drama sees a couple whose summer holiday goes terribly wrong when Rahim (Ibrahim Keshk), an illegal immigrant hired to fix the pool in the house they paid for, suddenly dies. But Woszczyńska views her film as a humanistic rather than a political statement.
“I don’t want to blame just Italy, but the whole of Europe. The whole world, which stays silent,” she tells Variety.
“When Afghanistan desperately needs our help, we are closing our eyes and our borders – just like [my characters] Adam and Anna. What is currently happening, the whole situation on the Polish-Belarusian border, it’s something worse than barbarism,...
- 9/22/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Matias Rojas Valencia directed feature about the infamous Colonia Dignidad commune.
New Europe Film Sales is launching sales at San Sebastian this week on Quijote Films’ upcoming Chilean drama A Place Called Dignity after the parties finalised a deal in Toronto.
Matias Rojas Valencia directed the project, which is in post-production and takes place at Colonia Dignidad, the notorious commune in southern Chile founded in 1961 by former Nazi soldier Paul Schäfer that housed a cult and where many children were sexually abused. It also served as an interrogation centre during the Augusto Pinochet regime.
The fictitious events in the film centre on Pablo,...
New Europe Film Sales is launching sales at San Sebastian this week on Quijote Films’ upcoming Chilean drama A Place Called Dignity after the parties finalised a deal in Toronto.
Matias Rojas Valencia directed the project, which is in post-production and takes place at Colonia Dignidad, the notorious commune in southern Chile founded in 1961 by former Nazi soldier Paul Schäfer that housed a cult and where many children were sexually abused. It also served as an interrogation centre during the Augusto Pinochet regime.
The fictitious events in the film centre on Pablo,...
- 9/20/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Documentary Exposure from The Babushkas Of Chernobyl director Morris gets its world premiere.
The 57th Chicago International Film Festival has unveiled its international competitions line-up, a roster that includes Venice Silver Lion winner The Power Of The Dog, Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers For The Stolen, and the world premiere of Holly Morris’s documentary Exposure.
The programme includes the international premiere of Franziska Stünkel’s The Last Execution. The festival runs October 13-24 and is the longest running competitive festival in North America.
The International Feature Competition line-up comprises: Péter Kerekes’s 107 Mothers (Slo-Czech-Ukr); Mohammed Diab’s Amira (Egy-Jor-uae-Saud...
The 57th Chicago International Film Festival has unveiled its international competitions line-up, a roster that includes Venice Silver Lion winner The Power Of The Dog, Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers For The Stolen, and the world premiere of Holly Morris’s documentary Exposure.
The programme includes the international premiere of Franziska Stünkel’s The Last Execution. The festival runs October 13-24 and is the longest running competitive festival in North America.
The International Feature Competition line-up comprises: Péter Kerekes’s 107 Mothers (Slo-Czech-Ukr); Mohammed Diab’s Amira (Egy-Jor-uae-Saud...
- 9/16/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Desperate for respite from their bourgeois lives in Poland, Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Zulewska) decide to vacation on a tiny Italian island. They wanted a big house with a pool and scenic view to get the most alone time possible. While a genial local (Marcello Romolo’s Fabio) promised exactly that, the pool is found empty and in disarray. He offers a discount. They refuse. He offers a free dinner at his trattoria in town. They explain that food won’t fix anything. Only when Adam asks Fabio what the problem is—considering the damage looks like a two-day job at most—does he agree to hire someone to make things right. A jackhammer wakes Anna the next morning.
First-time feature director Agnieszka Woszczynska (who co-wrote with Piotr Litwin) ensures this couple’s entitlement is on full display from the start of Silent Land. Anna packs the fridge with alcohol.
First-time feature director Agnieszka Woszczynska (who co-wrote with Piotr Litwin) ensures this couple’s entitlement is on full display from the start of Silent Land. Anna packs the fridge with alcohol.
- 9/11/2021
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Paris-based distributor The Jokers has landed French rights on Aga
Woszczyńska’s debut feature Silent Land ahead of the film’s premiere in Toronto.
New Europe Film Sales is handling global rights on the pic and struck the French deal. The film follows a perfect couple who rent a holiday home on a sunny Italian island. The reality does not live up to the expectation, however, and the constant presence of a stranger invades the couple’s idea of safety and starts a chain of events, which makes them act instinctively and irrationally, heading to the darkest place in their relationship.
Silent Land premieres in Toronto Film Festival’s Platform strand today (September 10).
Pic is produced by Agnieszka Wasiak at Lava Films from Poland, and Giovanni Pompili at Kino Produzioni from Italy, in co-production with Jordi Niubo at i/o post, Czech Republic. The film was supported by Polish Film Institute,...
Woszczyńska’s debut feature Silent Land ahead of the film’s premiere in Toronto.
New Europe Film Sales is handling global rights on the pic and struck the French deal. The film follows a perfect couple who rent a holiday home on a sunny Italian island. The reality does not live up to the expectation, however, and the constant presence of a stranger invades the couple’s idea of safety and starts a chain of events, which makes them act instinctively and irrationally, heading to the darkest place in their relationship.
Silent Land premieres in Toronto Film Festival’s Platform strand today (September 10).
Pic is produced by Agnieszka Wasiak at Lava Films from Poland, and Giovanni Pompili at Kino Produzioni from Italy, in co-production with Jordi Niubo at i/o post, Czech Republic. The film was supported by Polish Film Institute,...
- 9/10/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
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