On a 24-day shoot in Corsica since February 12, Hungarian director Bela Tarr’s The Man from London [trailer] is on the last lap of its adventurous voyage, and may be ready in time for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

A summary of events: after nine days, production stalled in February 2005 following the death of producer Humbert Balsan. The film – inspired by a Georges Simenon novel – then found itself at the centre of a legal battle, with Ognon Pictures buying rights from French bank Coficiné.
However, French producer Paul Saadoun – who worked on Tarr’s last film, Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) – put the project back on track and shooting resumed in Hungary in spring of last year, with a cast that includes British actress Tilda Swinton, Czech actor Miroslav Krobot, and Hungary’s Janos Derzsi and Istvan Lenart.

The final stage of the shoot, in Bastia, will end on March 10. Editing will be a clear-cut affair according to the film’s French producer.

A European co-production between French outfit 13 Production, Hungary’s T.T. Filmmuhely (run by Tarr) and Germany’s Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion and Black Forest (formerly CMW Film Company), the €5.3m film included €380,000 in Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) advances on receipts, €400,000 from Eurimages, €480,000 from Arte France Cinéma (€300,000 in co-production and €180,000 in pre-sales, see interview with Michel Reilhac), support from ZDF, pre-sales from Canal +, as well as backing from the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation and the Hungarian Minister for Culture.

Dutch outfit Fortissimo is handling international sales.