08/02/2010

French seller Memento Films International has the double honour of having two films selected in official competition at the 60th Berlinale (February 11-21): Natalia Smirnoff’s French/Argentinean co-production Puzzle [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (produced on the French side by Caroline Dhainaut-Nollet for Las Ninas Pictures) and Burhan Qurbani’s German title Shahada [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (produced by Bittersuess Pictures and ZDF).

Tanja Meissner, head of sales and acquisitions at Memento, said: "We’re delighted because these two films, which we discovered a few weeks ago, are debut features".

She continued: “For them, being showcased in competition at Berlin is very prestigious, but it also implies that they are very strong works. Puzzle is a very moving and uplifting film, which will enchant audiences and buyers.”

“Shahada is Burhan Qurbani’s final-year film at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. It is an ultra-contemporary film of particular relevance on the issue of second-generation Muslim Germans for the director’s parents are Afghan. It’s an intelligent and aesthetically-pleasing cinematic style, somewhere between Fatih Akin and Abdellatif Kechiche."

At the EFM, the Memento team, headed by Emilie Georges, will also unveil the first promo-reel for Julie Bertucelli’s The Tree (see news), starring Charlotte Gainsbourg; and for Gilles Marchand’s French/Belgian co-production Black Heaven (see news).

There will also be a market screening for Nader Takmil Homayoun’s French/Iranian co-production Tehran [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was lauded at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers. The film completes a promising line-up in an overall climate that Meissner deems more positive for international sales: "We get the impression that things are picking up. Distributors have exhausted their stocks and they need films."

(Translated from French)