Vying for the top prize at Swiss international doc film festival Visions du Réel, Gregoris Rentis’ debut feature “Dogwatch” is a stunning, stylized triptych that follows the stories of mercenaries Yorgos, Costa and Victor.
All three work as private guards hired by ships crossing the so-called High Risk Area of the Somali coastline to protect their cargo from pirates. But what was a necessity in the late 2000s no longer makes sense a decade later due to the steady drop in attacks from pirates.
The resulting absurdity of their ongoing training and presence on land and at sea transpires through this film laced with slapstick comedy moments infused with hyper-charged masculinity.
Variety caught up with Rentis, who explained that his doc was seven years in the making as he faced the challenge of finding a shipping company willing to allow them onboard, getting the go ahead from maritime security and casting his characters.
All three work as private guards hired by ships crossing the so-called High Risk Area of the Somali coastline to protect their cargo from pirates. But what was a necessity in the late 2000s no longer makes sense a decade later due to the steady drop in attacks from pirates.
The resulting absurdity of their ongoing training and presence on land and at sea transpires through this film laced with slapstick comedy moments infused with hyper-charged masculinity.
Variety caught up with Rentis, who explained that his doc was seven years in the making as he faced the challenge of finding a shipping company willing to allow them onboard, getting the go ahead from maritime security and casting his characters.
- 4/11/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Four Greek fiction features and two documentaries have been selected for this year’s edition of Thessaloniki Goes to Cannes, the Cannes Film Market’s pix-in-post industry showcase. The projects will be presented to potential sales agents, distributors and festival programmers during a presentation at the Palais des Festivals on July 12.
The event is a collaboration between the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Greek Film Center, and the Cannes Film Market. Greece is the only country in Southeastern Europe and the Balkans to take part.
This year, the event’s organizers received even more applications than in years past, according to Yianna Sarri, head of the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora. “It seems that even during the pandemic, film directors found a way to be more creative,” she said.
Sarri noted that the annual event has become a prime launching pad for rising Greek talents. Two years ago, Christos Nikou...
The event is a collaboration between the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Greek Film Center, and the Cannes Film Market. Greece is the only country in Southeastern Europe and the Balkans to take part.
This year, the event’s organizers received even more applications than in years past, according to Yianna Sarri, head of the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora. “It seems that even during the pandemic, film directors found a way to be more creative,” she said.
Sarri noted that the annual event has become a prime launching pad for rising Greek talents. Two years ago, Christos Nikou...
- 6/11/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The French sales agent is pinning its hopes on the Berlin competition title by Brazil’s Caetano Gotardo and Marco Dutra as well as on the Panorama-screened documentary Days of Cannibalism. French international sales agent Indie Sales will be able to boast a jam-packed line-up of 12 titles at the European Film Market of the 70th Berlinale (20 February-1 March). Standing out in particular is a feature that will be vying for the Golden Bear: All the Dead Ones by Brazilian duo Caetano Gotardo and Marco Dutra (Special Jury Prize at Locarno in 2017 for Good Manners). The movie, which has been produced by Brazilian outfit Dezenove Som e Imagens together with France’s Good Fortune Films (Clément Duboin and Florence Cohen), will have its official world premiere on Sunday 23 February. The story, written by the pair of directors, kicks off in 1899, shortly after slavery has been abolished in Brazil....
French outfit is handling a trio of Berlinale titles including Golden Bear contender All The Dead Ones.
Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired world sales rights to Teboho Edkins’ documentary Days Of Cannibalism ahead of its premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama Dokumente section.
Shot in the southern African country of Lesotho, the work explores the impact of the arrival of a wave of Chinese entrepreneurs on its rural communities, which traditionally made their living from cattle farming.
Edkins, who describes the feature as a “contemporary documentary western”, captures the simmering tensions as forces of capitalism challenge the old order and traditions.
Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired world sales rights to Teboho Edkins’ documentary Days Of Cannibalism ahead of its premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama Dokumente section.
Shot in the southern African country of Lesotho, the work explores the impact of the arrival of a wave of Chinese entrepreneurs on its rural communities, which traditionally made their living from cattle farming.
Edkins, who describes the feature as a “contemporary documentary western”, captures the simmering tensions as forces of capitalism challenge the old order and traditions.
- 1/30/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Amsterdam-based producers network will hold annual meeting in UK for the first-time in Edinburgh event supported by Screen Scotland.
Ace producers has unveiled the 18 producers who have been selected to participate in 29th edition of its Ace Session training programme and join the Ace Network.
A total of 15 territories are represented in the selection, comprising Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK, as well as, for the first time, Georgia and Lithuania.
The participants will attend the programme, running across 2019 to 2020, with a feature project in development.
The fresh intake...
Ace producers has unveiled the 18 producers who have been selected to participate in 29th edition of its Ace Session training programme and join the Ace Network.
A total of 15 territories are represented in the selection, comprising Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK, as well as, for the first time, Georgia and Lithuania.
The participants will attend the programme, running across 2019 to 2020, with a feature project in development.
The fresh intake...
- 9/16/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Dutra whose credits include 2011 Un Certain Regard entry Hard Labor and Good Manners, which won the Locarno jury prize in 2017.
Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired world sales rights to Brazilian director Marco Dutra’s upcoming period drama All The Dead Ones, set against the backdrop of Sao Paolo in the late 19th century, shortly after the abolition of slavery.
The film revolves around three women from a formerly wealthy coffee plantation-owning family that has gone into financial decline amid the rapidly changing backdrop of Brazil at the turn of the century.
The death of their long-time maid, a former black slave from their farm,...
Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired world sales rights to Brazilian director Marco Dutra’s upcoming period drama All The Dead Ones, set against the backdrop of Sao Paolo in the late 19th century, shortly after the abolition of slavery.
The film revolves around three women from a formerly wealthy coffee plantation-owning family that has gone into financial decline amid the rapidly changing backdrop of Brazil at the turn of the century.
The death of their long-time maid, a former black slave from their farm,...
- 9/6/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: First image released of Rampling in tale of identity loss and contemporary alienation.
TF1 Studio will launch sales on Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s drama The Whale, starring Charlotte Rampling as a woman undergoing an identity crisis, at the upcoming Efm.
It is the second feature from La-based Pallaoro after his portrait of family disintegration Medeas, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section in 2013 and went on to clinch multiple awards.
Revisiting themes explored in that film, The Whale is an intimate portrait of a woman’s progressive loss of identity as she struggles to come to terms with her past and her own sense of reality, exploring contemporary alienation and the human struggle to connect.
Pallaoro co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Orlando Tirado.
“We’re very proud to follow Andrea Pallaoro on his next movie. When we discovered Medeas, it was love at first sight and we know that The Whale has this same...
TF1 Studio will launch sales on Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s drama The Whale, starring Charlotte Rampling as a woman undergoing an identity crisis, at the upcoming Efm.
It is the second feature from La-based Pallaoro after his portrait of family disintegration Medeas, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section in 2013 and went on to clinch multiple awards.
Revisiting themes explored in that film, The Whale is an intimate portrait of a woman’s progressive loss of identity as she struggles to come to terms with her past and her own sense of reality, exploring contemporary alienation and the human struggle to connect.
Pallaoro co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Orlando Tirado.
“We’re very proud to follow Andrea Pallaoro on his next movie. When we discovered Medeas, it was love at first sight and we know that The Whale has this same...
- 2/3/2017
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: First image released of Rampling in tale of identity loss and contemporary alienation.
TF1 Studio will launch sales on Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s drama The Whale, starring Charlotte Rampling as a woman undergoing an identity crisis, at the upcoming Efm.
It is the second feature from La-based Pallaoro after his portrait of family disintegration Medeas, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section in 2013 and went on to clinch multiple awards.
Revisiting themes explored in that film, The Whale is an intimate portrait of a woman’s progressive loss of identity as she struggles to come to terms with her past and her own sense of reality, exploring contemporary alienation and the human struggle to connect.
Pallaoro co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Orlando Tirado.
“We’re very proud to follow Andrea Pallaoro on his next movie. When we discovered Medeas, it was love at first sight and we know that The Whale has this same...
TF1 Studio will launch sales on Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s drama The Whale, starring Charlotte Rampling as a woman undergoing an identity crisis, at the upcoming Efm.
It is the second feature from La-based Pallaoro after his portrait of family disintegration Medeas, which premiered in Venice’s Horizons section in 2013 and went on to clinch multiple awards.
Revisiting themes explored in that film, The Whale is an intimate portrait of a woman’s progressive loss of identity as she struggles to come to terms with her past and her own sense of reality, exploring contemporary alienation and the human struggle to connect.
Pallaoro co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Orlando Tirado.
“We’re very proud to follow Andrea Pallaoro on his next movie. When we discovered Medeas, it was love at first sight and we know that The Whale has this same...
- 2/3/2017
- ScreenDaily
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