Christopher Vourlias: Last News

Christopher Vourlias Paul Negoescu’s fourth feature, “Men of Deeds,” which world premieres in competition Sunday at the Sarajevo Film Festival, is at first glance a departure from the Romanian director’s previous work. Set in the rural region of Bucovina, it’s a world removed from the swanky bars and bistros of his last film, the Bucharest-set “The Story of a Summer Lover.”The film follows llie (Iulian Postelnicu), a small-town police chief who hopes to settle into a modest, comfortable life. A man of low expectations and dubious morals, he sets his sights on a small plot of land that’s up for sale — an orchard in the countryside where he imagines he can make a fresh start.Nothing, however, goes according to plan.

Christopher Vourlias Bogdan George Apetri’s “Miracle” took home the top prize in the Romanian Days competition at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which saw nine first-time directors among the 12 filmmakers competing in the annual showcase of domestic cinema.It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr.

Christopher Vourlias When Dumitrana Lupu took over as the head of the Transilvania Film Festival’s industry program earlier this year, she was tasked with a two-fold mission of continuing to discover and boost emerging talents from the host country, as well as ensuring that the Romanian festival remains a vital meeting place for filmmakers from Southeastern Europe and the surrounding region.To do so, she and the organizing team revamped some of TIFF’s industry sections while ensuring that long-running programs provide continuity for a festival that unspools its 21st edition from June 17 – 26.With a focus on the Black Sea region and its neighboring countries, the Transilvania Pitch Stop has emerged as one of the leading co-production and co-financing platforms for the region’s filmmakers. Among the films supported by the TPS since its inception in 2014 include “Apples,” by Greece’s Christos Nikou, which opened the Horizons sidebar of the Venice Film Festival; “The Man Who Surprised Everyone,” a Horizons prize winner from Russia’s Alexey Chupov; and “La Civil,” by Teodora Ana Mihai, which won the Prize of Courage in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar last year.

Christopher Vourlias Zeynep Atakan, the producer of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Palme d’Or winner “Winter Sleep,” has come on board to co-produce and handle international sales for “Hilal, Feza and Other Planets,” director Kutluğ Ataman’s follow-up to his 2014 Berlin Film Festival player, “The Lamb.”The film begins soon after Turkey’s September 1997 coup, when Hilal and Fatma leave their Muslim town near the Turkish capital, Ankara, to study at the state university in Istanbul. A new law bars Fatma from entering the campus if she wears her religious head scarf.

Christopher Vourlias Powerhouse producers Valeriy Fedorovich and Evgeniy Nikishov, the creative duo behind Netflix’s first Russian original series, “Anna K,” quietly left 1-2-3 Production in early March and are now focused on their Moscow-based shingle MC2.Though the announcement was formally made just days removed from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fedorovich said the plan to leave the Gazprom-Media-backed production outfit had been set in motion long ago.“When we set up our own company, it was clear that we [would] have to say goodbye to 1-2-3 Production,” Fedorovich told Variety. “We used to work for others; now we want to work for ourselves.”As the co-heads of the Moscow-based outfit which they launched in 2018, Fedorovich and Nikishov were the creative force behind the plague thriller “To the Lake,” a series that made top 10 lists across the globe after it was acquired by Netflix, and wrapped production last year on the streamer’s first original Russian drama series, “Anna K,” a contemporary retelling of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel “Anna Karenina.” They were also tapped to produce the Netflix original series “Nothing Special.” But the war in Ukraine, which entered its fourth month this week, has left many high-profile Russian film and TV projects in limbo, as global streaming platforms, international distributors and a range of industry partners have either suspended or pressed pause on their Russian operations.Fedorovich and Nikishov could not comment on the status of either of the two Netflix series currently in the pipeline.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s latest documentary, “The Natural History of Destruction,” bows May 23 in the Cannes Premiere section of the Cannes Film Festival. The director returns to the Croisette one year after his last feature, “Babi Yar.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba and producer Darya Bassel are teaming up on a documentary about Ukraine’s refugee crisis after their last collaboration, “Outside,” premiered at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX festival this year.The project, with a working title “Displaced,” is being produced by Bassel’s Kyiv-based Moon Man production outfit in co-production with Germany’s Koberstein Film and Denmark’s Final Cut for Real.Zhurba began filming not long after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, capturing footage of the thousands of Kyiv residents who had flocked to the capital’s railway station for safety.

Christopher Vourlias Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and producer Denis Ivanov are teaming up again after their last collaboration, the ‘90s-set crime drama “Rhino,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar last year.The new feature, “Shining World,” centers on a mother and her young son living in a small American town in the 1960s. Described by Ivanov as a “fairy tale” with echoes of Wes Anderson’s whimsical tone, it unspools in both the real world and in the imagination of its young protagonist after he learns an amusement park is being built nearby.“Shining World” was written by Sentsov while imprisoned on what his supporters insist were trumped-up charges after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Christopher Vourlias “Million Dollar Pigeons,” which had its world premiere this week at Hot Docs, follows a colorful cast of pigeon masters from far and wide who compete in the most lucrative pigeon races on the planet. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer, and speaks to the director, Irish filmmaker Gavin Fitzgerald.The third documentary feature from Fitzgerald, the film enters the world of the passionate “pigeon fanciers” who put their reputations and livelihoods at stake in pursuit of ever-growing prize purses.

Christopher Vourlias Irish director Frankie Fenton explores the movement of global activists who believe nuclear power is our best hope to fight climate change in “Atomic Hope: Inside the Pro-Nuclear Movement,” which world premieres May 3 at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Paris-based documentary specialist Java Films, which is handling world sales on the film, has given Variety exclusive access to the trailer.Intimately filmed across more than a decade, “Atomic Hope” follows the small movement of nuclear-energy advocates from Japan to Switzerland, America to Australia, as they try to win over a skeptical public – despite stiff opposition from traditional environmentalists and other interest groups.Fenton admits he was as much a nuclear-energy skeptic as the next when he began researching the film.

Christopher Vourlias “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana” director Lana Wilson is developing a documentary feature about psychics that she’ll be presenting this week at CPH:FORUM, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 23-April 3.“Look Into My Eyes” is a poetic exploration of what Wilson describes as “the oldest and most popular form of therapy,” told through a series of intimate sessions with psychics and their clients.

Christopher Vourlias “I Am Greta” director Nathan Grossman will be taking two new projects in development to the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), one of which he’s revealed exclusively to Variety.The documentary feature, with the working title “Amazonia,” follows a series of expeditions into the Amazon led by Sydney Possuelo, considered the leading authority on Brazil’s remaining isolated indigenous peoples.

Christopher Vourlias “Fahrenheit 11/9” producers and Academy Award nominees Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) are developing a documentary that explores the world of climate profiteering and how the planet’s wealthiest are planning to weather the uncertain century ahead.The duo will be pitching their project during CPH:FORUM, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX), which runs March 21-April 3.“Sink or $wim” is inspired by journalist McKenzie Funk’s bestseller “Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming,” which details how a growing legion of corporations, high-stakes gamblers and entrepreneurs are cashing in on the climate crisis. “We’ve all seen a lot of movies about climate change.

Christopher Vourlias Thessaloniki Film Festival director Orestis Andreadakis was on summer vacation last August when he got a call from Stavros Benos, the head of the newly appointed National Reconstruction Committee, which was tasked with responding to a series of devastating wildfires that had recently swept across the island of Evia.Just weeks before, Greece’s second-largest island had been a densely wooded paradise famous for its production of honey and resin. But nearly a third of Evia was reduced to ash and cinders during a scorching summer that saw an estimated 300,000 acres of forest and bushland incinerated by wildfires across Greece, as soaring temperatures hit a record high of 115.3 degrees.Benos was calling the festival topper with a plea.

Christopher Vourlias Jordanian director Rama Ayasra’s “Harvest Moon,” a documentary that tells the story of two activists on a mission to bring back the cultivation of wheat and its lost heritage to its original homeland of Jordan, took the top prize in the Pitching Forum of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s Agora Docs industry program, which wrapped March 16.The award ceremony Wednesday night brought a close to a successful session that saw more than 300 industry professionals taking part both physically and online. “I think it’s the best proof that the industry is ready to be back in business – if it ever stopped,” said the festival’s general director, Elise Jalladeau.In its selection of “Harvest Moon” (pictured), which is produced by Mariam Salim (New Productions) and co-produced by Asmahan Bkerat, the jury offered its hope that the award “can help the seeds of an idea grow into a beautiful and important documentary.” “The winning pitch had integrity, a deep affinity to its characters and a clear awareness of the potential social impact of the film,” read the jury’s statement.

Christopher Vourlias When Laura Roveri, a 25-year-old Italian woman living in Verona, was stabbed 15 times by her ex-boyfriend in a nightclub, she barely survived to tell her story. But despite a damning trail of evidence of her attacker’s murderous intent, he claimed his vicious assault never intended to kill her – and received only a seven-year prison sentence as a result.The incident was just one in a wave of brutal attacks and femicides that in recent years have rocked Italy and exposed the devastating consequences of a culture of misogyny and machismo.

Christopher Vourlias Before the Russian army launched an invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, French war correspondent Loup Bureau was embedded in Donbass, the restive borderland in Eastern Ukraine, which since 2014 has been the site of an ongoing conflict between Russian-backed separatist groups and Ukrainian government forces.Reports were circulating of an impending Russian attack. Bureau, who had already spent time in the region while shooting his feature-length documentary “Trenches” – screening next week at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – expected it to be a localized skirmish.

Christopher Vourlias A fortnight ago, documentary filmmaker Vera Krichevskaya was anticipating the Russia release of her latest feature, “F@ck This Job,” a spirited, behind-the-scenes portrait of the country’s last independent broadcaster, TV Rain. But just days before the film’s Moscow premiere, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine.

Christopher Vourlias Denis Ivanov, the Ukrainian producer of critically acclaimed films including Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s “The Tribe,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass” and Oleh Sentsov’s “Rhino,” has penned an impassioned letter against Russia’s war in Ukraine, describing it as a “genocide against Ukrainians” and accusing the Russian military of war crimes.In the letter, Ivanov gave his full-throated support to a boycott on Russian films, demanding “no more ‘business as usual’ with Putin’s Russia.”“I think some festival selectors, film professionals and cultural managers just do not get what is happening in Ukraine,” he wrote, in light of an ongoing campaign by the Russian military that has escalated in recent days. “This war of aggression by the Russians has turned into a war on independence and a war for values and rights.

Christopher Vourlias Rwandan director Kivu Ruhorahoza’s “Father’s Day,” which bows in the competitive Encounters strand of the Berlin Film Festival, is a timely story of fatherhood in a country that saw a generation orphaned by one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.The film presents a trio of interwoven stories set in the East African nation. A mother tries to cope with the loss of her only son.

Christopher Vourlias Russian director Alexander Zolotukhin has sky-high ambitions for “Brother in Every Inch,” which has its world premiere Feb. 13 in the Berlin Film Festival’s competitive Encounters section.Zolotukhin’s sophomore feature is the story of twin brothers whose inseparable bond complicates their efforts to fulfill their shared dream of becoming air force pilots.