M-Appeal Rolls Out Sales on Fest Fave ‘Blanka,’ World Premieres Polemical ‘Lipstick’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Maren Kroymann’s Berlin-based M-Appeal has rolled out a brace of international sales, with more in the works, on “Blanka,” a Philippine street kid tale shepherded by the Venice Festival’s Biennale College Cinema and directed by Japan’s Kohki Hasei.
Hasei’s first fiction feature, after documentary “W/O,” “Blanka” has clinched theatrical distribution deals with Japan’s Transformer, France’s ASC Distribution, Praesens in Switzerland, Spain’s European Dreams Factory and Nankin Plano for Greece.
China (Lemon Tree) and Taiwan (AVJet) are also licensed. M-Appeal is about to finalise deals for Norway, Benelux and South-East Asia.
Produced by Flaminio Zadra at Italy’s Dorje Film, “Blanka” is a classic case of an upbeat festival reception, evinced in prizes and reviews, feeding export sales while positioning a title as a crowdpleaser. Philippine YouTube star Cydel Gabutero plays the 11-year-old eponymous heroine, an orphan who gets by on the mean streets of Manila by filching wallets from tourists. Having seen many kids bought for parents, she hatches the misbegotten scheme of buying a parent. Friendship with an elderly blind street guitarist, Peter, leads to a busking job – Blanka has a lovely voice – and the chance of finding the family she yearns for.
An upbeat take on Blanka’s struggle for happiness which, according to reviews, does not sidestep some of the horrors of poverty in Manila – one trafficker wants Blanka to work as a stripper – “Blanka” won the Laterna Magica (CGS) Award and Sorriso diverso Venezia 2015 plaudit for best foreign-language film on its world premiere last year in Venice. It went on to scoop multiple other kudos, such as the Audience Award at Switzerland’s Fribourg Festival in March and, last week, the main jury’s Cinekid Lion Award for Best Children’s Film at Amsterdam’s Cinekid Festival.
A second – and far more controversial – Asian acquisition, “Lipstick Under My Burkha,” directed by India’s Alankrita Shrivastava, world premieres on Oct. 26 at the Tokyo Festival.
Humor-laced, “Lipstick” weaves the stories of four women who battle to fulfil their desires in secret acts of rebellion – one, a burkha-clad college girl takes the first steps to becoming a pop singer; another, a 55-year-old widow, has a phone romance and rediscovers her sexuality. Framing a franker-than-usual depiction for Indian cinema of women’s sexual yearnings and supporting their right to that desire, “Lipstick’s” trailer has received a first eleven day 1.4 million views to date on YouTube and commentaries which range from enthusiastic support to trolling plus predictions of fatwas, whatever that could mean.
“As women, we often have secret dreams, nurtured by the pulpy romantic fantasies that we discover through films, books, songs and things we see around us,” Shrivastava said.
She added: “But there is a deeper desire that is perhaps inherent in our very beings. That is what I have tried to explore through the film.”
Directed by a woman filmmaker, the film has an important message for women and women’s sexuality in India and in a larger cultural context,” Kroymann said.
“As a women-driven company, M-Appeal is particularly proud to handle this film which offers a very independent and uncompromising vision on the subject.”
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