12/10/2006

On the heels of local autumn releases Deepfrozen and Your Name Is Justine (Luxembourg’s Foreign Language Oscar submission), perfect family confection Perl oder Pica from director Pol Cruchten will hit screens tomorrow.

Based on the popular autobiographical novel by Jhemp Hoscheit, the film stars the novelist’s son Ben as the 12-year-old rascal Norbi, whose growing pains and quest to understand the mysterious ‘p’ signs in his father’s cashbook take the viewer on a trip through the 1962 mining town of Esch.

The Luxembourg/Austrian co-production was filmed in Luxembourg, while post-production was handled in Austria. Adapted for the screen by Viviane Thill and François Dupeyron, the film is entirely spoken in Luxembourgish and stars some of the country’s most well-known actors.

André Jung steals the show in the difficult role of Norbi’s father, continuously having to walk the tightrope between giving his children a proper religious upbringing (which, in 1962, excludes comics, pop music and – heaven forbid – masturbation) and his own kind personality and joie-de-vivre.

Popular character actors Thierry Van Werveke, Luc Feit and Myriam Müller co-star as a Rasputin-like healer, a righteous schoolteacher and a footloose aunt, respectively. Their characters are strictly observed from little Norbi’s perspective, making them into grotesque caricatures as only a child could imagine them – much to the enjoyment of the audience.

The film was produced by Luxembourg outfit Red Lion and the Austrians of Amour Fou, with backing from the Luxembourg Film Fund, the Austrian Film Fund, the Vienna Film Fund, Austrian broadcaster ORF and Eurimages. The film will be released in Austria by Poool Filmverleih in 2007 and has already been sold to Germany and France.