Norway’s international co-production fund, the Sørfond, will this year unspool two features in the official programme of the Cannes International Film Festival (17-28 May), and it has also greenlit another eight new fiction and documentary projects.

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s Beauty and the Dogs [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kaouther Ben Hania
scheda film], which was co-produced by Norway’s Integralfilm (Nefise Özkal Lorentzen) and Hedda Foundation (Jørgen Lorentzen), will unspool in Un Certain Regard. The Cinetelefims (Tunisia) and Tanit Films (France) production, which is the former country’s first official Cannes entry in 17 years, is based on a real-life story from 2013, when a young girl, Myriam, was raped by Tunisian police officers.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan director Gustavo Rondón Córdova’s already award-winning project (in Amiens) La Familia [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (co-produced by Filminvest Midt-Norge/DHF’s Dag Hoel) will be on show in the Critics’ Week. The Factor RH, La Pandilla and Películas Prescindibles production follows the lives of 35-year-old Andrés and his 12-year-son Pedro, who hardly see each other, in the blue-collar neighbourhood of Caracas.

Administered by the Norwegian Film Institute with the Films from the South Foundation, the Sørfond has supported 41 projects during the last seven years. The 2017 jury has just agreed to back another eight new films – five fictions and three documentaries – “reflecting our diverse world in its variety of themes, forms, genres, countries and professionals”, according to the jury.