Pitching du Réel – Selected Projects 2018

AUNTS

by Šejla Kamerić, Mirjana Karanović, Kim Longinotto, Andrea Štaka   
Serbia, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina -Wake Up Films, Alva Film Production sàrl, Agitprop, SCCA / pro.ba | 120’ / 2 x 60’
Expected release: May 2020

Half a century after the sexual revolution and women’s liberation movement, four acclaimed female directors question the position of women in the contemporary world. Their voices blend with those of their subjects visualizing the polyphonic dramaturgy of female identity over generations. 

AUSTRAL

by Benjamin Colaux   
Belgium, France - Stenola Production, Little Big Story | 90'
Expected release: Spring 2019

At the end of the world, three men take on the southern ocean and its legends. They leave their family, braving the cold and the storms to meet the isolated shermen in the infamous islands at the southern tip of Chile. Together, they share a life that is far from ordinary, made of hardship but also moments of great happiness. Putting their life constantly at stake, trying to survive the rapid swings of the climate, they agree on the importance of carrying on their ancient profession. 

BAD TRANSLATION

by Corinne Beaumier   
Canada - EyeSteelFilm, Les Productions Flow | 90'
Expected release: April 2019 

A young Canadian returns to her Chinese homeland for the first time since her adoption 24 years ago — an adventure that quickly transforms into a nationally televised search for her biological parents. The ensuing media frenzy enables her to discover people from her past, ultimately leading to her meeting her Chinese birth family. Through a web of uncomfortable situations, unspoken feelings and cultural misunderstandings, the lm confronts the romantic notion of satisfying family reunions. 

DON'T GIVE A FOX

by Kaspar Astrup Schröder   
Denmark - Good Company Pictures | 75’ / 3 x 25’
Expected release: April 2019 

DON’T GIVE A FOX is a coming-of-age story about identity, love and skateboarding. We follow a group of young and wild girls in Roskilde, a small town in Denmark. The girls, despite coming from completely different backgrounds, find a fellowship in skateboarding. A place where they can forget their everyday life and gain courage to change the skate culture that has been dominated exclusively by boys for the past decades. 

GUSTAVE VERNIORY, 10 YEARS IN THE ARAUCANIA 

by Ignacio Aguëro 
Chile - Agüero & asociado ltd | 80' / 60'
Expected release: October 2019

An 80-minute creative documentary directed by Ignacio Agüero, which portrays the radical transformation of the newly acquired territory of Araucanía at the end of the 19th century, through the eyes of a young foreigner, Gustave Verniory. It is based on the book “Gustave Verniory, 10 annes en Araucanie 1889-1899”, written by Gustave Verniory, a Belgian engineer hired by Balmaceda’s government to collaborate in the construction of the railroad that would join Victoria and Temuco. 

JUKAÏ, THE GREEN SEA

by Akihiro Hata     
France - Good Fortune Films | 90' / 52'
Expected release: Early 2020

JUKAÏ - THE GREEN SEA is the story of a lonely exploration in the forest of Aokigahara in the foot of Mount Fuji known as “the Suicide Forest” to understand why so many people choose to disappear in the depth of this huge mysterious forest. I didn’t know that the exploration would resonate with my own story. 

MY ENGLISH COUSIN

by Karim Sayad
Switzerland, France - Close Up Films, Norte Distribution | 90’
Expected release: Spring 2019

My cousin, Fahed, left Algeria in 2001 to settle in England. Regularized after a decade of forced secrecy, he has been married to an English woman with whom he can’t have a family, for the past ten years. Recently, he has welcomed his nephew to his home in Grimsby, but the young man disappeared.
Fahed works two jobs to pay his bills and devotes his rare free time to buying discount gifts for his Algerian family while also preparing, in secret, a wedding in Algeria to a younger woman. 

NO BOYS LAND

by Nontawat Numbenchapol   
Thailand - Mobile Lab Project | 96' / 52'
Expected release: August 2018

At a buffer zone along the Thai-Myanmar borderlands, young Shan refugee men submit to mandatory military training conducted by the Shan State Army. A Shan boy from the mountains steps into adult life without hopes and dreams, only a gun and a military uniform. 

ON THE TRAIL OF MADNESS

by Edgar Hagen 
Switzerland - Vollbild Film GmbH | 90’ / 52’
Expected release: 2020

The film follows Ulrich Tilgner on his mission. He is one of the most persistent truth seekers and bridge builders in the “high voltage” atmosphere between the West and the Orient. For 40 years he has been tracing on site the causes and implications of Western interference in the Middle East for ZDF and for SRF, among others. Today, the region is largely in ruins and Europe has barricaded itself with walls, fences and laws, to stop the inflow of victims, escaping the chaos in the Middle East. 

STORIES FROM THE DEBRIS

THE SHADOW OF THE DESERT

THE WHITE CHIEF

THIS LAND OF MINE

TREES FLOATING

VORONOFF, FROM THE PLANET OF THE HUMANS