Cannes Docs/Marché 2020

Leading Russian outfit Metrafilms is getting back into the documentary groove with an espionage thriller as embroiled and complex as anything found in dramatised spy movies.

In the final part of his Sicilian trilogy, Michele Pennetta shows the economic/familial similarities between two marginalized characters sharing the sun-scorched island, a teenage boy and a young Nigerian immigrant.

In the summer in which George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, Bernard Attal’s new feature documentary Restless is a film with an obvious, added topical resonance, dealing with an unexplained act of police brutality.

Marc Isaacs’ new feature The Filmmakers’ House is labelled as “documentary.” Some doc purists, though, may be startled by the director’s freewheeling approach toward a project which was indeed shot in his own house.

PARISDOC, the industry arm of Cinéma du Réel, presents four new projects at Cannes Marché, three of which are set in the US, one featuring the niece of murdered Minnesota resident George Floyd.

A Black Jesus, directed by Luca Lucchesi and produced by Wim Wenders, poses a poignant and pertinent question. How can the residents of a Sicilian village worship a black Jesus but disregard the refugees who pray in the same church?

Leading Berlin-based doc sales specialist Rise and Shine presents a slate of recent festival successes, as well as Scars, the new film by Agnieszka Zwiefka, featuring in German Films Previews.

MetFilm Sales are screening three titles at Cannes Marché, including Hot Docs pick-up Meat the Future. They are also pre-selling two upcoming projects - on an unknown Russian female photographer from behind the Iron Curtain, and on sustainable fashion.

Three Greek documentaries-in-progress are presented June 22 at the Cannes Marché, including Michael Klioumis’ Made in Vain, about the pursuit of the body beautiful.

Speaking to Business Doc Europe, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, director of Our Daily Bread and Homo Sapiens and one of the heavyweight auteurs of European documentary, has revealed details of his new corona-virus themed feature doc, The Standstill (sold by Autlook).