“It’s a film handled with immense sensitivity and featuring magnificent cinematography, about the very timely subject of immigration in Europe being challenged by human kindness.” For Laurent Danielou, who manages French international sales agent Loco Films, the virtues of Fortuna [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Swiss director Germinal Roaux, which will be world-premiered on 18 February in the Generation 14plus section of the 68th Berlin Film Festival (15-25 February), will not elude the expertise of the buyers in attendance at the European Film Market. 

The second feature by the director, after Left Foot Right Foot [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Bernd Eichinger
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intervista: Oliver Hirschbiegel
scheda film], and who will grace screens later this year in The House That Jack Built by Lars von Trier) and France’s Patrick d’Assumçao (nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2014 for Stranger by the Lake [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alain Guiraudie
scheda film] and on the cinema listings in France from tomorrow onwards in The Apparition [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Xavier Giannoli
scheda film]). Written by the director, the story revolves around 14-year-old Fortuna, a young Ethiopian girl who has had no news of her parents since arriving in Lampedusa, Italy. Together with other refugees, she is given shelter for the winter in a Swiss Catholic hospice at an altitude of over 2,000 metres. While they wait for their fate to be decided by the Swiss authorities, Fortuna meets Kabir, a 26-year-old African refugee, and falls desperately in love. Their relationship develops in secret, until the day Kabir disappears... Production duties on Fortuna were handled by Swiss outfit Vega Films together with Belgium’s Need Productions, and further support was provided by SRG SSR, RTS and Proximus.

Four market premieres will also be organised by Loco Films at the EFM, for Of Skin and Men [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Guérin Van de Vorst – Regi…
scheda film] by Guérin Van De Vorst (starring Vincent Rottiers as a youngster who is released from prison, where he converted to Islam and was radicalised) and Bitter Flowers [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Olivier Meys
scheda film] by Olivier Meys (shot in both China and Paris).