‘One Summer,’ ‘Ru’ Lead Canada’s Diverse Slate at European Film Market
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Quebec’s recent domestic box office charmers “One Summer” and “Ru” lead Canada’s diverse acquisition slate of 17 features — many coming off strong, award-speckled festival runs — screening for buyers at the Berlinale’s European Film Market.
More than half the 20 Canadian titles screening across the EFM and festival are Quebec productions, a ratio that reflects the resilience of the province’s film industry, not to mention the next wave of filmmaking talent and the return of Quebec audiences to cinemas.
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“Ru,” an adaptation of Vietnamese-born Canadian novelist Kim Thúy’s prize-winning, widely translated 2009 novel, is nearing the $2 million mark in Canada and is the latest in a string of Quebec films to earn more than $1 million at the domestic box office in 2023.
“Local success doesn’t necessarily mean international distribution, but I have the feeling that it’s possible with ‘Ru,’ which is a universal story, very faithful to the book, with amazing actors who are not well known,” says Patrick Roy, president of distributor Immina Films. “[Although] it takes place in the 1970s, this positive story about human migration can inspire people today. My job is to get buyers to the screenings, the movie will do the job.”
In 2022, Roy acquired the rights to “Ru” and roughly a dozen other pre-bought, unreleased Quebec titles from Les Films Séville (which he previously headed) after it was shuttered by EOne. One of the six Immina films released domestically last year was “One Summer,”
Louise Archambault’s comedy-drama about a street chaplain who inherits a country property and decides to take a group of homeless people on a summer vacation. The film cracked the $2 million box office mark — a good sign that EFM buyers may also warm to its story; Attraction International is handling sales.
L.A.-based Canadian producer Nicholas Tabarrok (Darius Films) expects sales to be announced out of Berlin for Archambault’s Toronto-premiering “Irena’s Vow,” which is based on the true story of a young Polish woman who protected 12 Jews while working as the maid to a Nazi officer.
“The market can respond in unpredictable ways, which we saw recently at Sundance, for example, so all I can rely on is that, starting at TIFF and at every screening thereafter, reviewers and audiences love this film,” says Tabarrok, who is one of the film’s three producers. “It’s impactful, moving, features great performances by Sophie Nélisse and Dougray Scott and its themes and message are, very sadly, as relevant today as they were during WWII.” WestEnd Films is handling sales.
“Quebec also has a rich history of exporting world-class talent, such as Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallee, to the U.S. and the rest of the world,” Tabbarok adds. “I believe that Louise Archambault might very well be the next Quebec director to hit it big outside of the country.”
Jean-Christophe J. Lamontagne, president of Montreal distributor H264, is making his first visit to the market as an international sales agent. He plans to leverage the excitement around the recent live action short Oscar nomination of Vincent René-Lortie’s “Invincible,” which his company is distributing, to generate interest in EFM titles — neither of which has screened publicly — from two notable Quebec cinema artists.
“François Delisle’s ‘Waiting for the Storms’ is a powerful message regarding the state of our planet and environment and a real wake-up call — it will leave no one indifferent,” Lamontagne says. “I feel moviegoers will be swept away by its original proposition — it’s a photo film, like Chris Marker’s ‘La Jetée’ — but also by the four powerful characters that move the story forward.”
His other film, “Hotel Silence,” is an adaptation of the widely translated novel “Ör” by Icelandic author Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir, stars Irene Jacob and is directed by renowned Quebec filmmaker and educator Léa Pool. “[The film] couldn’t be more relevant today with everything that’s happening in Ukraine or anywhere where war is raging,” Lamontagne says. “I feel buyers and audiences are looking for stories that take a luminous perspective on dark subjects.’
Isabelle Legault of Filmoption is handling a trio of market-premiering titles with fantasy elements, each widely different in tone, she explains, yet all of them films that will leave audiences talking.
“Echo to Delta” (a young boy enlists his friends to help him find his young brother, whom he believes has been taken by aliens) is directed by Patrick Boivin, whose popular YouTube videos (“Iron Baby” and “Dragon Baby”) have gathered over 100 million views. “[It’s] one of those rare family films with enough layers for kids and parents to have a great movie experience,” Legault says. “The narrative unfolds from a child’s point of view but refrains from patronizing the audience, and showcases [Boivin’s] innovative fusion of camera techniques, stop-motion animation, origami and music.”
Simon Lavoie’s hybrid feature “Dissolution,” in which elderly inmates are dying mysteriously in their prison cells, blends political cinema, horror-science fiction, and documentary, while Kim Albright’s “With Love and a Major Organ,” based on a play by Julia Lederer, offers a fresh perspective on genre. “The film is very à propos, at a time when we let apps dictate our lives, from when we should sleep to who we should date,” Legault adds.
Rounding out the pack of Quebec films screening in the EFM and festival are Henri Pardo’s award-winning “Kanaval,” a story of a young Haitian boy who moves with his mother to rural Quebec in the mid 1970s; Philippe Lesage’s wilderness lodge-set “Who by Fire,” which has its world premiere in Generation K Plus; and Oksana Karpovych’s documentary “Interception,” a co-production with France and Ukraine, which world premieres in Forum.
High-profile Canadian films in Berlin and the EFM
HOTEL SILENCE
(EFM)
DIRECTOR: Léa Pool
PRODUCERS: Lyla Films, Louise Prods.
CAST: Sébastien Ricard, Lorena Handschin, Jules Poirier
A man at a crossroads takes a one-way trip to a war-torn country, builds relationships with survivors and rediscovers meaning in his own life.
SALES: H264
KIPKEMBOI
(EFM)
DIRECTOR: Charles Uwagbai
PRODUCERS: Jennifer Jonas, Leonard Farlinger (New Real Films)
CAST: Thamela Mpumlwana, Elsie Abang, David Cubitt
A teenage Kenyan math genius from a small village creates an equation to play the stock market and brings financial markets to their knees.
SALES: Indiecan Entertainment Intl.
MATT AND MARA
(ENCOUNTERS/EFM)
DIRECTOR: Kazik Radwanski
PRODUCER: Daniel Montgomery (MDFF Films)
CAST: Deragh Campbell, Matt Johnson
A young university professor in a troubled marriage unexpectedly reconnects with a man from her past who wanders onto her campus.
SALES: MDFF Films
RU
(EFM)
DIRECTOR: Charles-Olivier Michaud
PRODUCERS: André Dupuy, Marie-Alexandra Forget (Amalga)
CAST: Chloé Djandji, Chantal Thuy, Jean Bui, Olivier Dinh
The story of a wealthy family’s difficult flight from 1975 Vietnam and their transition to a new life in Quebec is told through their daughter’s eyes.
SALES: Immina Films
WHO DO I BELONG TO?
(COMPETITION)
DIRECTOR: Meryam Joobeur
PRODUCERS: Annick Blanc, Maria Gracia Turgeon (Midi La Nuit)
CAST: Salha Nasraoui, Mohamed Hassine Grayaa, Malek Mechergui
A mother in an isolated Tunisian village contends with a threatening darkness that emerges after her son returns from war with a mysterious pregnant wife.
SALES: Luxbox
WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN
DIRECTOR: Kim Albright
PRODUCER: Madeleine Davis
CAST: Anna Maguire, Hamza Haq
In a world where hearts are made of objects, a woman rips out her own for the man she loves, who runs away with it.
SALES: Filmoption Intl.
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