Noticias

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has added to its European Film Market slate “Love Thing,” starring top German actor Elyas M’Barek, whose credits include “The Collini Case.” Also on the slate is “Soul of a Beast,” which debuts its trailer below.

Despite the virtual nature of the EFM, the company has taken additional office space at the Marriott Hotel in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.

“Love Thing,” which also stars Lucie Heinze, Peri Baumeister and Alexandra Maria Lara, is directed and written by Anika Decker, whose last feature “High Society” sold widely. Decker scripted box office successes like “Rabbit Without Ears,” which grossed $85 million.

“Love Thing” is produced by German production-distribution powerhouse Constantin Film, which has set its release for July 7. The producers are Rüdiger Böss and Philipp Reuter; the co-producers are Anika Decker and Jan Decker; and the executive producer is Martin Moszkowicz. Picture Tree will present a first teaser trailer to select buyers.

There's no doubting the ambition of the latest film from Swiss director Lorenz Merz, which in an early sequence involving a mescaline trip and and a trip to the zoo allows a crack in the sky to appear between the real world and fantasy as it explores the positive and negative emotions and pressures experienced by teenage dad Gabriel (Pablo Caprez). The beasts include an escaped giraffe and a pair of big cats but, as you might expect, it's Gabriel's inner psyche that is really on the prowl - as the film puts it, "everything a lonely child has is imagination".

In truth, Gabriel is still closer to childhood than to the adulthood that is sitting loosely about him, even though he's looking after his young son Jamie (Art Blacca), merely cloaking the sort of risk-taking attitude that is the kingdom of the young. While Gabriel's paternal instinct is evident - in stark.

Lorenz Merz doesn’t want viewers to dissect his new film “Soul of a Beast.”

“It’s really not an intellectual film,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a film that you can experience intellectually, it’s really a physical movie that goes into your stomach, or doesn’t.”

World premiering Friday at the Locarno Film Festival, “Soul of a Beast” follows teenage father Gabriel (newcomer Pablo Caprez) who falls in love with Corey (Ella Rumpf), his best friend’s girlfriend, during a delirious summer rush. Wrenched by the decision to stay and take care of his son or follow Corey to Guatemala, Gabriel is catapulted into the unforgiving wilderness of his heart, where imagination is more real than reality.

The film is a pulsating affair set in a crumbling urban world brought to life using special effects, and incorporating a trippy mix of animal symbolism and Japanese fairytale influences.

Beast, a coming-of-age film from Swiss director Lorenz Merz, won the fourth annual Filmmaker Award at the 2018 Zurich International Film Festival.

British actor Dev Patel (Lion, Slumdog Millionaire) presented Merz and producer Simon Hesse with the honor, which is awarded to an outstanding, but still uncompleted, Swiss feature film.

The prize, backed by Swiss luxury watchmaker Iwc Schaffhausen, comes with $100,000 in prize money earmarked for completion of the project.

Shot in Zurich, in the Swiss German dialect, Beast follows the story of a teenager, Gabriel (Pablo Caprez), who is raising his 2-year-old son as a single dad. One summer's ...

Beast, a coming-of-age film from Swiss director Lorenz Merz, won the fourth annual Filmmaker Award at the 2018 Zurich International Film Festival.

British actor Dev Patel (Lion, Slumdog Millionaire) presented Merz and producer Simon Hesse with the honor, which is awarded to an outstanding, but still uncompleted, Swiss feature film.

The prize, backed by Swiss luxury watchmaker Iwc Schaffhausen, comes with $100,000 in prize money earmarked for completion of the project.

Shot in Zurich, in the Swiss German dialect, Beast follows the story of a teenager, Gabriel (Pablo Caprez), who is raising his 2-year-old son as a single dad. One summer's ...