Imagine is set to be released by KMBO wide in France on October 23rd. Meanwhile further sales have been made following the deals with Kino Świat www.kinoswait.pl and KMBO, to Russia - P&I Films Distributions, Turkey – Calinos, and Germany via Neue Visionen. A deal is in the offing for the US and Canada and this will be announced later in October.
The film was released in Poland by Kino Swiat in April of this year. It premiered in Toronto last year and was winner of best director and Audience Award at the Warsaw international Film festival amongst many others awards. Budgeted at 2.05m EUR the producers secured top British and German actors Edward Hogg and Alexandra Maria Lara to join the cast of largely blind children. Imagine is the third feature and first English language film from Polish-born Jakimowski.
Jakimowski’s most recent feature, Tricks was the Polish Academy award nomination in 2009 and has picked up major awards at Venice, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Miami and Thessaloniki film festivals. Released in all major international territories the film has performed solidly at the international box office.
The shoot took in the Portuguese capital Lisbon and a major location in a Convent School orphanage in Evora. Other cast includes: young blind French actor Melchior Derouet (as Serrano), and Francis Frappat (Doctor).
The film, written by Jakimowski, tells the story of Ian (Hogg), a charismatic (and blind) spatial orientation instructor, who arrives at a top notch Lisbon ophthalmological clinic where he is in charge of sessions with blind patients. As a new teacher he uses unconventional methods, and during his spatial orientation sessions Ian quickly wins the trust of his students; a small group of children and teenagers of various nationalities. Among his students, a young woman called Eva (Lara) is especially withdrawn and secluded. Ian concentrates his efforts to make her overcome her shyness. He brings her outside the clinic without any permission to help her rediscover the pleasures of life.
Film and Music Entertainment in London have brought together a posse of young blind actors ranging in age from nine and sixteen.
IMAGINE is a Poland-France-Portugal co-production between ZAiR (Warsaw) www.zair.eu , KMBO (Paris), Filmes do Tejo II Multimedia (Lisbon) and is funded by the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC), the Institito Do Cinema E Do Audiovisual (ICA), Canal + Cyfrowy www.canalplus.pl , Can do Films and Wytwornia Filmow Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych www.wfdif.com.pl . Mike Downey of Film and Music Entertainment co-produces.
Tanja Lunardelli at Film and Music Entertainment (53 Great Portland Street, London W1W 7LG, Tel: + 44 207 255 1834, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
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