In mid-September, Helena Wittmann, whose debut feature, Drift [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Helena Wittmann e Theresa …
scheda film], premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017, wrapped the main shoot for her sophomore feature, Human Flowers of Flesh [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Helena Wittmann
scheda film], which had started in mid-August. At the same time an experimental film and a road movie, Human Flowers of Flesh was presented at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, as part of its special “Films After Tomorrow” section, which featured ten international projects yet to be completed.

The film will centre on Ida, a woman in her forties, who lives with a crew of five on a sailing yacht. During shore leave in Marseille, the French Foreign Legion attracts Ida’s attention, and she sets herself a new goal: to travel across the Mediterranean to the Algerian town of Sidi Bel Abbès, the Legion’s headquarters until the country gained its independence in 1962.

“On their journey, Ida and her crew do not only break through geographical borders. The past is reflected in the present, different languages seek a common ground, bacteria and fungi penetrate the film material, and social hierarchies are reshaped. With every passing day of the journey, the different layers of narration become increasingly interwoven. The film traces connections and conditions that describe our present and therefore takes an example from the sea. As the origin of all life, the sea contains all information about it, but in the constant transition from one state to the next, it can never be determined,” read Wittmann’s description of the project for FID Marseille’s FIDLab in 2019, in which Human Flowers of Flesh also participated.

Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia, known for her roles in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Yorgos Lanthimos
scheda film] and The Lobster [+leggi anche:
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Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
scheda film], will play Ida in the film, which will also star Denis Lavant. Among the cast are also Vladimir Vulevic, Mauro Soares and Gustavo Jahn.

The movie is being produced by Frank Scheuffele, Karsten Krause and Julia Cöllen for German outfit Fünferfilm, and by Christophe Bouffil for Marseille-based French co-producer Tita Productions. Grand Film will distribute the feature in Germany.

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