German-Russian coin backs projects

8 November 2012 - 19:45

New projects by helmer Alexander Sokurov ("Russian Ark") and Bakur Bakuradze are among the first five pics to receive coin from the German-Russian Co-Development Fund.

The fund is backing the projects with a total of E95,000 ($125,226).

Zero One Film and Studio Bereg in St. Petersburg are co-producing Sokurov's "The Louvre Under the Occupation," about the relationship between the director of the famed Paris museum and the Third Reich's commissioner for art conservation in the occupied territories.

Bakuradze's "The General," about the flight and capture of Balkans war criminal, is co-produced by Leipzig-Berlin outfit Ma.Ja.De. Filmproduktion and Moscow's Institute of Communications Vita Activa.

Leipzig-Berlin producer Rohfilm and A-One Film in St. Petersburg are teaming on Ella Vakassova's "Tajik Jimmy," which follows an illegal immigrant in Moscow who becomes a Bollywood sensation, while A-Film in Berlin and Panopticum Entertainment in Moscow are co-producing Alexander Strizhenov's comedy "Offside," in which a former German soccer pro becomes the head coach of Russia's national women's soccer team.

Aleksei Uchitel's "The Stockholm Syndrome," about a woman who falls in love with her kidnapper, is a joint production between Berlin's Film Base and Rock Films in St. Petersburg.

Launched last year, the first German-Russian Co-Development Fund is a joint initiative of the German Federal Film Board, the Russian Cinema Fund and regional funders Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung.

The Fund's next application deadline is July 16, with selections expected in September.

Contact Ed Meza at ed.meza@mannaa.de

You can find more information about the RockFilms projects by downloading the press-release or requesting for the press-release at the following address: xenia.rockfilms@gmail.com

Author: ED MEZA
Date: Feb 16, 2012