01/08/2013 - The adaptation of the Luxembourgish-language novel Amok will be directed by producer and occasional director Donatto Rotunno

The 2011 Luxembourgish-language novel Amok Eng Lëtzebuerger Liebeschronik by Tullio Forgiarini will be adapted for the big screen as Ouni d'hänn (Without Hands) by Grand-Ducal producer Nicolas Steil and director Donato Rotunno (photo).

The film will start shooting in the Grand Duchy on August 12 and will film through the end of September. There is no word as yet on who will appear in the cast.

Ouni d'hänn tells the story of a nameless 15-year-old boy who's having major problems at school and at home, where his mother can't seem to relate to the child she had when she was much too young.

The boy, who fantasizes about a much better alter ego of himself, Johnny,  strikes up a friendship with Shirley, a 13-year-old girl from an equally difficult background whose mother died of an overdose.

Their shared efforts for a little happiness in their lives take place on the margins of society. A sympathetic young teacher, Nathalie, tries to help them, but that's easier said than done.

This will be the second fiction feature that Rotunno will direct, after the English-language In a Dark Place, based on the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw. Rotunno is better-known as a producer of Luxembourg-based outfit Tarantula, having (co-)produced such features as Joachim Lafosse's Private Property [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] with Isabelle Huppert and recently, the Locarno-selected Mobile Home [+see also:
trailer
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Ouni d'hänn will be produced by Iris Productions, led by Steil.

The film will be shot in Luxembourgish, the local language, which is still something quite unusual, though the success of last year's Luxembourgish-language policier noir Doudege wénkel suggests audiences are starving for films that reflect not only local realities but also the local language.