Memento Films banking on Katalin Varga and North
Surfing on the wave of exceptional 2008 results after worldwide sales of The Class [+see also:
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film profile], French international seller Memento Films today arrives at the European Film Market of the Berlinale (February 5-15) with fresh ambitions.
The company – headed by Émilie Georges and Tanja Meissner – has one title selected in official competition: the debut feature Katalin Varga [+see also:
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Interview Peter Strickland - Director …
film profile] by 36-year-old UK director Peter Strickland. The film – co-produced by Romania (Tudor and Oana Giurgiu for Libra Film), the UK (The Razeºti Group ) and Hungary – stars Hilda Péter, Norbert Tankó and Tibor Pálfy.
Penned by the director, Katalin Varga revolves around a revenge-seeking woman who has been driven away by her husband. She travels with her son (whose father she is searching for) to the Carpathian Mountains where she confronts her difficult past.
Shooting and initial editing on the film cost barely €30,000 and final post-production took place in Hungary (RDI Studios, Magyar Filmlabor) with György Kovacs (Bela Tarr’s usual collaborator) as sound mixing supervisor.
Another strong title on Memento’s slate is Rune Denstad Langlo’s Norwegian film North [+see also:
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film profile], which opens the Panorama section tomorrow. Once again, the company is investing in the future for this is Langlo’s debut feature.
Starring Anders Baasmo Christiansen, North (produced by Motlys) recounts the misadventures of a former top skier who suffers from depression and lives an isolated existence until the day he discovers he has a four-year-old son. This discovery leads him to set out on an eventful journey to the north to visit the child.
Memento’s Berlin line-up also includes two titles selected in the Forum section: US director Bradley Rust Gray’s The Exploding Girl and South Korean filmmaker So-Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain.
(Translated from French)
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