French-Italian Animated Feature ‘Chicken for Linda!’ Boarded by Charades (EXCLUSIVE)
Charades (“I Lost My Body”) has boarded “Chicken for Linda!,” an animated feature directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach (“The Girl Without Hands”) in the run up to this week’s Annecy Animation Festival.
Produced by Dolce Vita Films (“A Son”) and Miyu Productions (“Plethore de Nords”), and coproduced by Italy’s Palosanto, “Chicken for Linda!” will be presented in the work-in-progress section at Annecy.
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Comedy-laced, the animated feature follows a loving mom, Paulette, who feels guilty after unfairly punishing her daughter Linda and would do anything to make it up to her. She sets off to make a chicken with peppers, even though she doesn’t know how to cook.
But how will she find a chicken on the day of a general strike? The heartwarming mother-daughter tale also touches on overcoming grief through the plot involving the recent death of the young girl’s father.
“After the wonderful work of Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach we were carefully tracking this project and we find the team surrounding this duo equally strong,” said Charades.
Malta and Laudenbach said the film was intended to be “sweet and tender, aimed at younger children.” “The story unfolds in present times, in an ordinary small town on a day of general strike. There is no super power, no sorcerer, no wizard, no big quest to save the world and the only flying creature is a chicken,” added the pair.
Malta is an Italian filmmaker whose credits include “Simple Women” which premiered at Toronto and starred Jasmine Trinca and Elina Löwensohn; Laudenbach is the French director of “The Girl Without Hands” which competed at Annecy where it won the Jury Prize and was nominated at the Cesar Awards in 2016. Charades is a Paris-based company which has been handling prestige animation titles, such as the Oscar-nominated “I Lost My Body” directed by Jeremy Clapin, as well as “Mirai,” helmed by Mamoru Hosoda.
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