Delaporte, Breillat, Dumont, Riklis, Ferroukhi in Pyramide line-up

by Fabien Lemercier

31/08/2010 - With three films selected at Venice and seven titles set to be showcased at Toronto, international seller Pyramide intends to strike some successful deals with worldwide distributors. The company is also launching sales for two highly attractive French features which will finish shooting in early October: Bruno Dumont’s Hors Satan (see news) and Ismaël Ferroukhi’s Free Men, starring Tahar Rahim (see news).

At the 67th Venice Film Festival, kicking off tomorrow, Eric Lagesse and Yoann Ubermulhin’s team will be hoping for success with Catherine Breillat’s Sleeping Beauty, which will open the Horizons section; and two debut features in Critics’ Week: French director Alix Delaporte’s Angèle et Tony [trailer] (see news) and Eitan Zur’s Israeli/French co-production Lies.

At the Toronto Film Festival (September 9-19, 2010), Pyramide’s slate will be very well represented, particularly in the Contemporary World Cinema section with Eran Riklis’s Israeli/German/French co-production The Human Resources Manager (Audience Award at Locarno and already sold for 19 territories); Khalo Mtanabe’s South African/French co-production State of Violence; and Michael Rowe’s Cannes Camera d’Or-winner Leap Year.

Several other titles unveiled on the Croisette will be shown at the Canadian fest, including Chadian director Mahamat Saleh-Haroun’s French/Belgian co-production A Screaming Man [trailer] (Jury Prize at Cannes and already sold for around 20 countries) in the Special Presentations line-up. Meanwhile, the Masters section will host veteran Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira’s The Strange Case of Angelica [trailer], Chilean director Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia for the Light and Catherine Breillat’s Sleeping Beauty, after its Venice premiere.

Pyramide’s diverse line-up also includes two other titles acclaimed at Cannes (Diego Lerman’s The Invisible Eye [trailer] and French director Rebecca Zlotowski’s Belle Epine [trailer]); two French features in post-production: Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s Jimmy Rivière (see news) and Philippe Faucon’s Un Fils Perdu (“A Lost Son”, see news).

(Translated from French)