Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on “Not a Word,” which will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. The cast is led by Maren Eggert, who won the best acting award at the Berlin Film Festival for “I’m Your Man.”
The film is written and directed by Hanna Slak, whose credits include the Slovenian Oscar entry “The Miner,” and was lensed by Claire Mathon, the cinematographer of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Saint-Omer,” “Stranger by the Lake” and “Spencer.”
Eggert plays ambitious musician and conductor Nina. When her teenage son, Lars, has a strange accident at school, she decides to take a break from city life and together they head to their vacation home on an island on the rugged Atlantic coast. Bound in silence, their already brittle relationship is pushed to the edge.
Jona Levin Nicolai (“The Net,” Netflix’s “The Grimm Reality”) co-stars as the provocative teenage son while Maryam Zaree (“4 Blocks,” “Skin Deep,” “Undine”), Juliane Siebecke, Marko Mandić (“Gold,” “Naked Among Wolves”) and Mehdi Nebbou (“Deutschland 86,” “Munich”) round out the cast.
“’Not a Word’ tells the story of a relationship crisis between a parent and a teenager. Is it possible to live a meaningful artistic career and be a good enough parent? The question is common, the answers vary depending on societal trends,” Slak said in a statement. “What I would like to propose is a different variation of the question altogether: Is it really possible to be a good enough artist without living meaningful relationships? I am looking forward to presenting ‘Not a Word’ in Toronto and expanding on the topic with an international audience.”
“Not a Word” is Slak’s fourth feature film following “Blind Spot” (2001), “Teah” (2007) and “The Miner” (2017), which won more than 25 international awards.
Christian Petzold regulars Bettina Böhler, editor, and K.D. Gruber, production designer, were part of the crew. Amélie Legrand composed the soundtrack, based on Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
The film is produced by Michel Balagué (“The Miner,” “In the Last Days of the City,” “Sieniawaka”) of Volte in co-production with Ici et Là, Tramal Films, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Arte and TV Slovenia.
Balagué said: “Hanna Slak knows how to shape image, sound and music into an emotional experience and her powerful visual language and aesthetic sensibility can be fully perceived in this multi-layered story of a mother and her son.”
“Hanna Slak is an exceptionally smart and insightful filmmaker with a keen sense of a timely subject and rightfully a distinctly female perspective on it – you can tell this film is a matter of the heart,” said Thorsten Ritter, exec VP acquisitions, sales and marketing at Beta Cinema. “With its universal theme of compatibility of family and work, outstanding photography by Claire Mathon, one of Europe’s leading DOPs, and stellar performances by Maren Eggert and Jona Levin Nicolai, we anticipate strong interest from international buyers.”
Beta Cinema holds worldwide rights outside France and Slovenia.
The production was supported by Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FFF Bayern, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Eurimages, Fonds d’Aide à la Création Cinématographique et Audiovisuelle (FACCA), the Slovenian Film Centre and EACEA MEDIA.
