08/11/2017 - The selected filmmakers include Poland’s Maciej Pieprzyca, Slovenia’s Hanna Slak, Belgium’s Samuel Tillman and Germany’s Nick Baker-Monteys

As part of the 18th Arras Film Festival, currently in full swing (see the news and read the interview), the sixth edition of the Arras Days is about to unveil eight projects at the writing stage, which will be pitched to a jury of three professionals (Géraldine Goldenstern, Émilie Voisin and Geoffroy Grison) on Saturday, and which will duke it out for two development aid grants (one worth €8,000, courtesy of the CNC, and the other worth €5,000, provided by the City of Arras). Furthermore, the Arras Days, which is also devised as a co-production and funding platform, will allow producers, distributors and sales agents interested in these projects to discover them for themselves at first hand.

Standing out among the projects vying for the grants is Icarus. The Story of Mietek Kosz by Polish director Maciej Pieprzyca (Life Feels Good [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], I’m a Killer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maciej Pieprzyca
interview: Renata Czarnkowska-Listos a…
film profile]), which will be introduced by Pieprzyca’s producer. The story is based on the life of jazz pianist Mieczyslaw “Mietek” Kosz, who died in tragic circumstances after having lived a tumultuous life (he spent his childhood on a poverty-stricken farm and lost the power of sight at the age of 12, then his gift for music blossomed and his career started to take off while his personal life became very complicated; he was then reborn through love, among other highlights).

For her part, Slovenia’s Hanna Slak (The Miner [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hanna Slak
film profile]) will be pitching Burned, the plot of which revolves around a mother who puts her extremely active life on hold to take care of her son, who has attempted suicide after being traumatised by the murder of one of his classmates a few months prior.

Belgium’s Samuel Tilman (The Benefit of the Doubt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Samuel Tilman
film profile]) will be presenting his second feature-length project, Claire, in which a 14-year-old girl, devastated by the accidental death of one of her sisters, throws herself headfirst into hip-hop dance, and gets so good at it that she is soon offered the chance to topline a show… 

German filmmaker Nick Baker-Monteys (The Man Who Jumped Cars, The Final Journey [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) will be at Arras to pitch the project Revolutionary Woman, based on the life of Monika Ertl, who killed the Bolivian consul in Hamburg in 1971.

Georgia’s Mariam Khatchvani (Dede [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) will be taking part with her project Nene, which depicts a fashionable young artist’s struggle against the authorities, after they unfairly sentence her brother and fiancé to several years behind bars.

Russian director Boris Khlebnikov’s (Arrhythmia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Khlebnikov
film profile]) producer will be pitching the project Three Minutes of Silence, the plot of which revolves around a thirty-something young man working as a fisherman on a trawler and seeking to give his rather empty life meaning – until the day he heroically rescues a vessel in distress…

Czech filmmaker Petr Vaclav (Marian, The Way Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Václav
film profile], We Are Never Alone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Vaclav
film profile]) will be in attendance with Soleil et Lune, a story centring on an individual who tells of the genocide perpetrated against his tribe, his escape to another country, his life underground and his forced integration.

Last but not least, My Dad Is a Sausage, the feature-debut project by Belgium’s Anouk Fortunier, will be presented by producer Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem (who has films such as Zagros [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sahim Omar Kalifa
film profile] to his credit). The story revolves around a 12-year-old girl whose father quits his job as a banker in the hope of becoming an actor, much to the chagrin of his wife (who finds that she is the sole breadwinner in the family). But it fills his daughter with enthusiasm, and she is more than willing to lend him a hand.

(Translated from French)