10 Locarno Industry Talents To Track

variety.com:

Despina Athanassiadis, France Born in France and with Greek roots, Athanassiadis is currently focusing on her Alliance4Development project “The Young One,” about female truck drivers – “It’s a story of transmission, from older to younger generation” – which was awarded script consultancy residency at DreamAgo. “As a filmmaker, I’m interested in people who struggle.

I find it fascinating, watching how they find ways to fix their problems. I want to see them on screen,” she states. In her next film, she will focus on a middle-aged French woman, whose life changes forever when she goes to Greece. “It’s a movie with inner and outer journeys, and with lots of international characters.

Different countries will meet on the same island.” Rokhaya Marieme Balde, Senegal A Dakar-born filmmaker whose shorts screened at IFFR and Locarno who is developing feature debut “The Passion of Aline,” dedicated to Senegalese heroine Aline Sitoé Diatta and presented at Alliance4Development.

Inspired by African folktales – “They blur the lines between history and legend” – Balde wants to explore diverse themes, combining the personal and the political. “I strive to capture the essence of stories such as Aline’s and inscribe myself in their long-rooted oral history,” she states.