The
idea is simple: Fabrica aims to support films
which "no other western producer would want
to touch". And it knows how to pick 'em. Since
its launch in 1998, the Benetton-
backed production outfit's first three films,
Yesim Ustaoglu's Journey To The Sun,
Alexandr Sokurov's Moloch, and
Zhang Yuan's Seventeen Years,
picked up major awards at, respectively, Berlin,
Cannes and Venice. Its fourth film, Roger
Gnoanm'bala's Adanggamam is
now almost complete, with Celluloid Dreams
set to handle world sales.
"It's
the first African film to deal with the ultimate
taboo subject: the collaboration of black
African tribes in setting up the slave trade
for the Portugese," explains Locarno festival
director Marco Müller (who heads up the
Film Department at Fabrica).
Müller
is hard at work on Fabrica's second four-film
slate. The new package is spearheaded by the
second film from young Iranian director, Samira
Makhmalbaf (The Apple). Black
Boards, scripted and edited by Samira's father
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a story of three generations
of Kurds. Fabrica has contributed around half
of the $1 million budget. The film is complete
and is likely to surface somewhere on the
Croisette.
Now
shooting in Brazil is the debut feature
of young Brazilian, Lais Bodanski (daughter
of Jorge Bodanski). The $2 million film,
which deals with what Müller calls
"the authoritarian nature of Brazilian society,"
will be ready by the autumn. Fabrica provided
around half the budget.
Müller
and co are also supporting No Man's
Land, a $2.5 million war film from
Bosnian director Danis Tanovic. The film shoots
in June and will be ready by spring 2001.
The fourth title on the new slate is Gianfranco
Rosi's Oakland Is Not For Burning.
Fabrica is fully financing the film, "one
of the most visionary projects I've encountered,"
says Müller.
