Breaking News : Cineuropa – Lovemilla leads the pack for Reel Suspects
Lovemilla leads the pack for Reel Suspects
by Fabien Lemercier
– A market premiere at Cannes for the zany Finnish romantic comedy and the start of pre-sales for My Peaceful Place of Exile
An eclectic line-up packed with European films for the French international sales agentReel Suspects, with four premieres at the Marché du Film of the 68th Cannes Film Festival (13-24 May 2015). Standing out among them is the Finnish film Lovemilla [+] byTeemu Nikki. Starring Milka Suonpää, Joel Hirvonen, Mari Rantasila, Matti Onnismaa, Rami Rusinen and Pyry Laakso, this production staged by It’s Alive Film is an over-the-top romantic comedy blending love, robots and bodybuilding. The plot revolves around Aimo and Milla, who live together at the house of the young woman’s alcoholic and “zombified” parents, and who are saving up in order to gain their independence. But Aimo lacks self-confidence and squanders their savings by trying to find a fast-track way to build up his muscles. As the results do not measure up to his expectations, he even begins to dress up as a robot, which is not to Milla’s liking, and so she leaves him. This break-up has some unexpected consequences…
On the Croisette, Matteo Lovadina’s team will also be able to pin its hopes on the market premieres of Manieggs – Revenge of the Hard Egg [+] by Zoltan Miklosy (read thereview), a Hungarian animated film brimming with scathing humour, the British drama Stillby Simon Blake (toplined by Irish actor Aidan Gillen, who is world famous for playing the character of Littlefinger in Game of Thrones) and the Canadian film Surfacing by Lindsay MacKay.
At Cannes, Reel Suspects will also be launching pre-sales for My Peaceful Place of Exileby Dāvis Sīmanis, a co-production between Latvia and Lithuania (Locomotive Productions and Studio Uljana Kim), starring German actor Ulrich Matthes, Agnese Cīrule, Dmitrijs Javlovs, Leonīds Lencs and Toms Liepājnieks. The plot unfolds during the final year of World War One, and the lead character is a German military surgeon sent to inspect a convalescent home for patients suffering from post-traumatic psychosis and who attempts to restore the unusual facility to good working order.
Lastly of note on the line-up are German Angst by Jörg Buttgereit, Michal Kosakowskiand Andreas Marschall (revealed at Rotterdam – read the review in English), which will be screened at the market, the Indian fantasy film in post-production Ludo by Q and Nikon, and the Berlinale-selected The Blue Hour by Thai director Anucha Boonyawatana and Portrait of the Artist [+] by Antoine Barraud.
(Translated from French)