Yahoo News Belgium’s Best Friend Forever Nabs Berlinale-Bound ‘Los Conductos,’ ‘Corsican Summer’ (EXCLUSIVE)
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Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired two debut features, Camilo Restrepo’s Berlinale-bound “Los Conductos” and Pascal Tagnati’s “Corsican Summer.” Both films are produced by up-and-coming outfit 5à7 films.
Set to premiere at the Berlinale’s new competitive section Encounters, “Los Conductos” is a Spanish-language film set in Medellin, Colombia, and loosely based on the true story of Pinky, who freed himself from the grip of a religious sect and gets a job in a t-shirt factory. Misled by his own faith, he tries to to get his life back on track, but is haunted by the violent memories of his past.
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Restrepo has shot several shorts such as “La Bouche,” which played at Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight. The French banner 5à7 films produced the film with Mutokino in Colombia, in co-production with the outfits If You Hold a Stone and Montanero Cine. Mutokino will release “Los Conductos” in Colombia while Interior XIII will release in Mexico.
“Corsican Summer,” now in post-production, is set in a small village in Corsica where old grudges resurface and tensions arise. The film stars Jean-Christophe Folly (“Montparnasse Bienvenue”) and Cédric Appietto (“A Violent Life”), alongside Tagnati, who also stars.
An actor-turned-director, Tagnati previously starred in “Fidelio, Alice’s Journey” and “A Violent Life,” among other films. “Corsican Summer” is produced by Martin Bertier and Helen Olive at 5à7 films, and co-produced by Lotta Films and Vidéo de Poche. KMBO will release “Corsican Summer” in France during the second half of this year.
“We are delighted to launch our first French titles with this collaboration with 5à7 Films whose slate totally match ours, supporting new talented directors with strong vision and a creative freedom. Both films will surely stand out with their originality in the French landscape,” said Martin Gondre, co-founder of Best Friend Forever, along with former entertainment lawyer Charles Bin, and Indie Sales’ co-founder Nicolas Eschbach. The company bowed in Cannes last year and is a sister company of Paris based Indie Sales.
Best Friend Forever’s slate also includes Patric Chiha’s dance documentary “If it Were Love,” set to play at the Berlinale in the Panorama section, as well as Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Ukranian film “Atlantis,” which won best film in Venice’s Orizzonti section and also picked up an award at Les Arcs.
The other films repped by Best Friend Forever include the Colombian movie “Valley of Souls” by Nicolas Rincon Gilles, winner of the Etoile d’Or at Marrakech festival; Matthew Rankin’s “The Twentieth Century,” which won best Canadian first feature in Toronto, where it played in Midnight Madness; Juris Kursietis’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player “Oleg”; and Genevieve Duludes-De Celles’s “A Colony,” winner of the Crystal Bear award at last year’s Berlin festival.
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