email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

TURIN 2018 Torino Film Industry

Family relationships, dystopian futures and dark stories at the 11th TFL Meeting Event

by 

- 30 new projects in a more or less advanced stage of development were pitched in Turin, on 23 and 24 November, at TorinoFilmLab, including Spanish director Carla Simón's new film Alcarràs

Family relationships, dystopian futures and dark stories at the 11th TFL Meeting Event
Finnish director Mikko Myllylahti presents his project, The Woodcutter Story, at the 11th TFL Meeting Event

The Golden Bear at the Berlinale (with Touch Me Not [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adina Pintilie
film profile
]
), a Grand Prix at Cannes (Diamantino [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Sc…
film profile
]
) and the Golden Leopard at Locarno (with A Land Imagined [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) are proof that 2018 was a golden year for TorinoFilmLab, the Turin development and financing laboratory for first and second films which, now in its 11th edition, continues to see many titles supported by its programmes shine in the film industry. As is the case every year, while Torino Film Festival dedicated a special section to TFL films (including Duccio Chiarini's The Guest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Duccio Chiarini
film profile
]
, Babak Jalali's Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Sonja Prosenc's History of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sonja Prosenc
film profile
]
), the TFL Meeting Event (23 to 24 November) was an opportunity to show a group of professionals and decision makers (300 from all over the world) new projects that are in a more or less advanced stage of development and are looking for co-producers, financiers, sales agents and distributors. 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

"This year's selection reflects a general movement towards the exploration of gender and a reflection on family relationships, but also intimate relationships with the virtual world," observes TFL director Savina Neirotti. The relationship between technology and human beings, and the representation of a dystopian future, with a focus on environmental issues, were certainly central themes in the various pitches presented over the course of two days at the Meeting Event (20 projects in the ScriptLab programme and 10 in FeatureLab – the latter including a production prize competition). In the British-Chinese title Success in Circuit , by the visual artist Redmond Entwistle, a man and a woman meet in a Chinese microchip factory, chasing the promises of freedom and profit that come with new technology. The French film She Wolf by Magali Magistry (Méliès d'oro for Best European Fantasy Short Film in 2017 with Expire) talks about biotechnology and hyperconnectivity through the story of a woman who discovers she is being watched and photographed at night while she sleeps. The Finnish project The Squirrel by Markus Lehmusruusu, imagines a near future in which animals are all extinct (except for one squirrel), a comedy that ponders whether it is possible to be happy without a link to nature. The selection also includes An Endless Sunday [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Parroni
film profile
]
 by the Italian director Alain Perroni, which explores the delicate balance between online and offline life, following the events of three millennials on the outskirts of Rome, all wanting to leave their mark on the world, whatever the cost, while the unusual dark tale Titanic Ocean, by the Greek director Konstantina Kotzamani, follows the life of a group of teenagers who, between social media, apps and pop songs, share one dream: to become professional seductresses. 

The Catalonian director Carla Simón (Summer 1993 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
film profile
]
, winner of an award at the Berlinale 2017) was inspired by her own large family for her second film, Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile
]
, in which a dynasty of farmers finds itself suddenly without land or a future, while the Czech project The Caravan by Zuzana Kirchnerova is born from a personal story – a road movie starring a mother and her disabled son, focusing on love and a desire to escape – as is Costa Brava, Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 by Mounia Akl (Lebanon/France/Sweden/Norway), in which two sisters face the disintegration of their family against the backdrop of a Lebanon suffocating in waste.

The Woodcutter Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mykko Myllylahti
film profile
]
by Mikko Myllylahti (writer of The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juho Kuosmanen
film profile
]
, Un Certain Regard 2016 award) is a dark existential comedy set in contemporary Finland, in which a woodcutter is put to the test when he opens a mine in his idyllic village. Other projects include a gangster movie set in Senegal, Life in a Spiral by Rawa Thiaw (co-produced with France and Switzerland), which attempts to reverse clichés about African women, and the French-American stop-motion film project Dandelion Seed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter (nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short in 2018 with Negative Space), in which a Japanese teenager arrives at a Californian school near to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

"TFL receives around 800 applications a year. We only select 30 fiction projects and a dozen TV series, we therefore obviously miss out on projects," stated Neirotti, “which is why we have created faster programmes (TFL Extended) that go deeper, and that can be used for projects that do not have the time to participate in our entire process." The next TFL Extended workshop, on TV series, will be held in Turin from 12 to 15 April 2019. 

The projects presented at the 11th TFL Meeting Event: 

ScriptLab

A Piece of Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Koch
film profile
]
- Michael Koch (Switzerland/Germany)
Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile
]
- Carla Simón; co-written by Arnau Vilaró (Spain)
An Endless Sunday [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Parroni
film profile
]
- Alain Parroni; co-written by Giulio Pennacchi (Italy)
Dandelion Seed - Ru Kuwahata & Max Porter (France/United States)
Grand Ciel - Akihiro Hata; co-written by Jérémie Dubois (France)
Life in a Spiral - Rama Thiaw (Senegal/France/Switzerland)
Mignon - Sofia Georgovassili (Greece/Romania)
Petrichor - Esther May Campbell (United Kingdom)
She Wolf - Magali Magistry; co-written by Julie Peyr (France)
Success in Circuit - Redmond Entwistle (United Kingdom/China)
Thanatos - E del Mundo (Philippines/United States)
The Accident - Bruno Carboni; co-written by Marcela Bordin (Brazil)
The Camera - Viktor van der Valk; co-written by Jeroen Scholten van Aschat (Netherlands/Belgium)
The Caravan - Zuzana Kirchnerová; co-written by Tomáš Bojar (Czech Republic)
The Landscapes That You Seek - Juanita Onzaga (Belgium/Colombia)
The Root Crown - Katarzyna Gondek (Poland)
The Squirrel - Markus Lehmusruusu (Finland)
The Succession - Martín Kalina; co-written by Alex Cherniavsky (Argentina)
Therefore I Am - Wregas Bhanuteja; co-written by Daud Sumolang (Indonesia)
Vesna - Sara Kern (Australia) 

FeatureLab

Blood and Water - Jianjie Lin (China) (first feature)
Producers: Yue Zheng & Yiwen Wang – First Light Films (China)

Costa Brava, Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Mounia Akl (Lebanon/France/Sweden/Norway) (first feature)
Co-written by Clara Roquet
Producer: Myriam Sassine - Abbout Productions (Lebanon) 

Rift in the Ice - Maja Miloš (Serbia/Italy/Slovenia) (second feature)
Producer: Jelena Mitrovic - Film House Baš Čelik (Serbia)

Small Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Samani
film profile
]
- Laura Samani (Italy/Slovenia) (first feature)
Co-written by Elisa Dondi & Marco Borromei
Producer: Nadia Trevisan - Nefertiti Film (Italy) 

The Settlers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felipe Gálvez
film profile
]
- Felipe Gálvez (Chile/Argentina/Denmark) (first feature)
Co-written by Antonia Girardi
Producer: Giancarlo Nasi – Don Quijote Films (Chile) 

The Woodcutter Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mykko Myllylahti
film profile
]
- Mikko Myllylahti (Finland) (first feature)
Producer: Emilia Haukka - Aamu Film Company (Finland) 

Three [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juanjo Giménez
film profile
]
- Juanjo Giménez (Spain/France) (second feature)
Co-written by Pere Altimira
Producer: Luisa Romeo - Frida Films (Spain) 

Titanic Ocean - Konstantina Kotzamani (Greece) (first feature)
Producer: Maria Drandaki - Homemade Films (Greece) 

You Are There - Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore/Japan) (first feature)
Producer: Jeremy Chua - Potocol (Singapore) 

Yuni [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Kamila Andini (Norway/Malaysia/Indonesia)
Co-written by Prima Rusdi
Producer: Ifa Isfansyah - Fourcolours Film (Indonesia)

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy