HAF PROFILES


Igna Dir Eduardo Roy Jr Country of origin Philippines


Eduardo Roy Jr’s 2011 debut feature, Baby Factory, dealt with birth in real time, captur- ing the dramatic struggles of women in labour. In contrast his second feature, Igna, will centre around death but using the light- hearted approach of a comedy of errors. Described by Roy as “almost a docu-


drama”, the idea for the film came from a desire to return to his grandmother’s home town and learn about the Philippines’ cul- tural traditions surrounding the celebra- tion of death. “Life and death are themes we all deal


with on a daily basis and in the end, we all need to be reminded how to celebrate every minute of it,” says Roy, who is work- ing on the final draft of the script with Margarette Labrador whose background is in writing soap operas in the Philippines. The film will centre around Lola Igna,


the self-proclaimed oldest woman alive, who has a premonition about her death and comes up with a list of demands on how to celebrate her wake. Roy is teaming with producer Ferdi-


nand Lapuz who produced Baby Factory for Found Films. Baby Factory premiered at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Fes- tival and went on to screen at interna- tional festivals including Marrakech and Vancouver. Lapuz also produced Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay and Service (Serbis), both of which he brought to HAF in previ- ous years. Currently in pre-production, the pair


plan to shoot Igna in April, though are yet to finalise the cast. They will be hoping to secure more funds at HAF.


Jean Noh


1982 Dir Oualid Mouaness Country of origin Lebanon


Based on his own experience as an 11-year- old schoolboy in Beirut on the day Israeli planes started bombing the city, 1982 is a very personal project for Lebanese debut feature director Oualid Mouaness. “I was there… it’s my point of view on


what really unfolded then versus what I really cared about, which was this girl in my classroom,” says the director, who originally wrote a short story in 1985 about the autobiographical incident, in which he was about to tell a girl in his class that he was in love with her when the school was evacuated. Known for producing pop promos and


Paris Hilton documentary Paris, Not France (2008), Mouaness is now taking the leap into directing his first feature, which will be a Lebanese-Arabic-Euro- pean co-production. “I think there is a universality to the


project and the story. Essentially, nothing really matters but love — and everybody loves the same way, no matter what side of the equation one is on.” “It is a personal, simple story about


love,” adds Feyrouz Serhal of the film, which is being produced though her com- pany Roumanna and Mouaness’ company Tricycle Logic, with plans to shoot later this summer. The film has already passed through the


Dubai co-production market and the film- makers also pitched it in Berlin. Thomas Karathanos has come on board as a Ger- man co-producer for Twenty Twenty Vision. The project has already received backing from Trancas Film International. The film- makers are not specifically looking for Asian partners at HAF, but will be happy if they find them. “I have a feeling that Hong Kong may be pretty pivotal for what is going on in the film,” says Mouaness.


Geoffrey Macnab Igna


Budget $170,000 Finance raised to date $10,000 from private funds Contact Eduardo Roy Jr yahoo.com


wroyter0680@ n 10 Screen International at Filmart March 20, 2012 1982


Budget $1,700,000 Finance raised to date $700,000 from Trancas Film International and Roumanna Contact Feyrouz Serhal, Roummana feyrouzs@gmail.com


My Dictator


Budget $4m Finance raised to date none Contact Kim Moo-ryoung naver.com


mooring89@ The Seen And Unseen


Budget $325,000 Finance raised to date $50,000 via the APSA Children’s Film Fund, Hubert Bals Fund and SET Contact Gita Fara


My Dictator Dir Lee Hae-jun Country of origin South Korea


Beginning his career as a screenwriter for films including Kick The Moon and Antarctic Journal, Lee Hae-jun co-directed the 2006 transgender film Like A Virgin before mak- ing his solo directorial debut with Castaway On The Moon, which screened at the Berlin and Hong Kong film festivals in 2009. His next project will be set in 1972,


ahead of a North-South Korea summit meeting between the two dictators Kim Il- sung and Park Chung-hee. The film will centre around a low-level actor bent on impressing his son, who is roped in as Kim Il-sung’s double for the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). “With my first two films, I deliberately


held back on emotion and used dry humour. But with My Dictator, I want to throw straight balls in terms of the comedy and emotions. The film needs to be based in reality, but with a unique disposition,” says Lee, who came up with the idea after learning about the “summit rehearsals” which had been carried out by the KCIA. “They didn’t use real actors, but it was an


interesting idea. I could tell the story of an actor, but at the same time of an individual who lived through tumultuous times,” says Lee, who was also inspired to write a story about fathers — like his own — who lived through dictatorships, becoming dictato- rial towards their sons in the process. Kim Moo-ryoung, who produced Like A


Virgin and Castaway On The Moon, is pro- ducing for banzakbanzak Film Production. Lee is currently writing the script and plans to start shooting this year. The team will be at HAF looking for funds and pre-sales. Jean Noh


The Seen And Unseen Dir Kamila Andini Country of origin Indonesia


Kamila Andini started her career making documentaries about nature and animals, so it is not surprising that both her award- winning 2011 feature debut, The Mirror Never Lies, and her follow up, The Seen And Unseen, draw heavily on these themes. The Seen And Unseen centres around a


young girl living in a village in Bali, whose twin brother is diagnosed with brain cancer. She visits him in hospital and tells him sto- ries about the animals with which they used to play. As her brother loses his senses one by one, she makes her stories more physical and eventually turns them into dances. “This is a children’s world; this is the


world of imagination. And this is the time when arts and illness unconsciously cure each other,” says Andini, who won the Earth Grand Prix award at the Tokyo Interna- tional Film Festival and the Bright Young Talent award at the Mumbai International Film Festival for The Mirror Never Lies. Renowned Indonesian documentary


director Garin Nugroho — whose 2006 film Opera Jawa screened at Venice and Toronto — is attached to produce the film, together with Gita Fara, who worked as a line-producer on The Mirror Never Lies. They will produce for Indonesian outfit Sains Estetika Teknologi (SET) Film Pro- duction, which Nugroho set up in 1987. The Seen And Unseen has already


received backing from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund and the Asia Pacfic Screen Acad- emy (APSA) Children’s Film Fund, which backs Asian projects about children. Andini is currently writing the script, with plans to shoot in Bali.


Jean Noh


gita.fara@gmail.com


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