The Latvian film by Juris Kursietis has won out over six other Central and Eastern European movies. At the awards ceremony of the 12th edition of CinÉast, held at the Cinémathèque Luxembourg on Saturday 20 October, the international jury presided over by renowned French director-scriptwriter Jacques Doillon awarded the Grand Prix to Oleg by Juris Kursietis (Latvia/Belgium/Lithuania/France) and the Special Jury Prize to Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa (Poland/France). The rest of the jury was composed of Venice Days programmer Renata Santoro, Romanian filmmaker Marius Olteanu, Luxembourgish director-producer Adolf El Assal and Luxembourgish actress Sophie Mousel. The wins for Oleg and Corpus Christi come after a successful run on the festival circuit for both films. In the CinÉast selection, they locked horns with a strong group of movies that also included Cat in the Wall by Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, Nova Lituania by Karolis Kaupinis, Scandinavian Silence by Martti.
- 10/21/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
The film is Matthew Rankin’s English-language debut.
Belgian sales company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired worldwide rights excluding the Us and Canada on The Twentieth Century, the feature debut of Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin.
The film has its world premiere in Midnight Madness next month at Toronto International Film Festival.
Oscilloscope Laboratories will distribute the film in the Us, with Maison 4:3 handling the Canadian release.
Described by Bff as a ‘historical fantasia’, it is based on the youth of W.L. Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving prime minister.
Set in Toronto in 1899, it centres on aspiring politician Mackenzie King,...
Belgian sales company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired worldwide rights excluding the Us and Canada on The Twentieth Century, the feature debut of Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin.
The film has its world premiere in Midnight Madness next month at Toronto International Film Festival.
Oscilloscope Laboratories will distribute the film in the Us, with Maison 4:3 handling the Canadian release.
Described by Bff as a ‘historical fantasia’, it is based on the youth of W.L. Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving prime minister.
Set in Toronto in 1899, it centres on aspiring politician Mackenzie King,...
- 8/8/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
“If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere,” said Theresa May near the beginning of her ill-fated premiership of the United Kingdom. An ugly, insular attempt to shame migrants and multinationals across the European Union, the term “citizen of nowhere” has since been claimed with defiant pride by many of its targets — yet its very coinage remains chilling, according subhuman status to those who must cross borders to make a living, or just to hold onto their lives. By turns despairing, exhilarating and acridly funny, Latvian director Juris Kursietis’ tremendous “Oleg” peers closely at the real, ragged soul within one such nowhere man: a young, debt-ridden Latvian butcher scraping by in Ghent, whose desperation to stay put lands him at the mercy of the Polish immigrant mafia, which is to say not much mercy at all.
As an unblinking study of contemporary...
As an unblinking study of contemporary...
- 7/7/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Immigrant Song: Kursietis Explores a Modern Slave Trade in Sophomore Film
Latvian cinema seems on the verge of an international breakthrough, with various new directors appearing at major international film festivals over the past decade. With his sophomore film Oleg, Juris Kursietis becomes the most prominent Latvian figure since Laila Pakalnina, presenting a somber immigrant tale of Latvians abroad in the European underbelly of Brussels. Considering Sergei Eisenstein, one of the forefathers of cinematic technique, hailed from Riga, Latvia’s capital, it’s surprising the country’s film industry has not blossomed faster than it has (although neighboring Baltic countries Lithuania and Estonia have also presented a handful of new artists over the past several years).…...
Latvian cinema seems on the verge of an international breakthrough, with various new directors appearing at major international film festivals over the past decade. With his sophomore film Oleg, Juris Kursietis becomes the most prominent Latvian figure since Laila Pakalnina, presenting a somber immigrant tale of Latvians abroad in the European underbelly of Brussels. Considering Sergei Eisenstein, one of the forefathers of cinematic technique, hailed from Riga, Latvia’s capital, it’s surprising the country’s film industry has not blossomed faster than it has (although neighboring Baltic countries Lithuania and Estonia have also presented a handful of new artists over the past several years).…...
- 5/30/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Best Friend Forever, the newly-launched sales company based in Brussels, has acquired Nicolas Rincón Gille’s feature debut “Valley of Souls.”
Rincón Gille was previously a critically-acclaimed documentary trilogy whose third part, “Wounded Night,” won the special mention of the international jury at Cinéma de Réel and best film in the Colombian competition at Ficci
Set in the Colombian countryside, in 2002, “Valley of Souls” tells the story of a man, José, who returns to his home deep in the jungle after a long fishing night and discovers that paramilitary forces have killed his two sons, Dionisio and Rafael, and thrown their bodies into the river. During his lonely journey to retrieve his son’s bodies and give them a proper burial, José discovers the magic of a country torn in pieces.
The film’s protagonist is played by the non-professional actor José Arley de Jesús Carvallido Lobo, a real fisherman in Simití,...
Rincón Gille was previously a critically-acclaimed documentary trilogy whose third part, “Wounded Night,” won the special mention of the international jury at Cinéma de Réel and best film in the Colombian competition at Ficci
Set in the Colombian countryside, in 2002, “Valley of Souls” tells the story of a man, José, who returns to his home deep in the jungle after a long fishing night and discovers that paramilitary forces have killed his two sons, Dionisio and Rafael, and thrown their bodies into the river. During his lonely journey to retrieve his son’s bodies and give them a proper burial, José discovers the magic of a country torn in pieces.
The film’s protagonist is played by the non-professional actor José Arley de Jesús Carvallido Lobo, a real fisherman in Simití,...
- 5/13/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Best Friend Forever (Bff) was launched by Martin Gondre and Charlie Bin.
New Brussels-based sales and production services company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded sales on Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s dystopian drama Atlantis ahead of Cannes.
Set in near future, war-torn eastern Ukraine, the drama revolves around a former soldier suffering from Ptsd, working at a local smelter and struggling to adapt to the reality of a life in pieces and a land in ruins.
When the smelter shuts down and he loses his job he finds salvation by volunteer Black Tulip mission dedicated to exhuming war corpses.
New Brussels-based sales and production services company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded sales on Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s dystopian drama Atlantis ahead of Cannes.
Set in near future, war-torn eastern Ukraine, the drama revolves around a former soldier suffering from Ptsd, working at a local smelter and struggling to adapt to the reality of a life in pieces and a land in ruins.
When the smelter shuts down and he loses his job he finds salvation by volunteer Black Tulip mission dedicated to exhuming war corpses.
- 5/10/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Indie Sales, the French international sales boutique behind the Oscar-nominated “My Life as a Zucchini” and Ziad Doueiri’s “The Insult,” is set to branch out with the launch of Best Friend Forever, a new Brussels-based outfit dedicated to festival-driven world cinema.
Best Friend Forever is kicking off with the acquisition of Juris Kursietis’ sophomore outing, “Oleg,” which will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight. The movie follows Kursietis’ feature debut, “Modris,” which received San Sebastian’s special mention for the New Directors Award in 2014.
Produced by Tasse Film (“Dogs Don’t Wear Pants”) with Iota Productions (“Song of the Sea”) and In Script & Arizona Productions (“The Gentle Indifference of the World”), “Oleg” follows the story of a young Latvian butcher who immigrates to Brussels to work at a meat factory, hoping for a better life, but instead quickly falls under the yoke of Andzejs, a Polish criminal.
Best Friend...
Best Friend Forever is kicking off with the acquisition of Juris Kursietis’ sophomore outing, “Oleg,” which will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight. The movie follows Kursietis’ feature debut, “Modris,” which received San Sebastian’s special mention for the New Directors Award in 2014.
Produced by Tasse Film (“Dogs Don’t Wear Pants”) with Iota Productions (“Song of the Sea”) and In Script & Arizona Productions (“The Gentle Indifference of the World”), “Oleg” follows the story of a young Latvian butcher who immigrates to Brussels to work at a meat factory, hoping for a better life, but instead quickly falls under the yoke of Andzejs, a Polish criminal.
Best Friend...
- 4/29/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
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