Belgian filmmaker Sofie Benoot‘s “Apple Cider Vinegar,” which has its world premiere in the International Competition section of Visions du Réel, has been picked up for world sales by Filmotor. The trailer and poster are being released exclusively by PvNew.
The film is narrated by actor Sian Phillips, who appeared in “I, Claudius” and David Lynch’s “Dune,” and is a veteran nature documentary narrator.
The essay film starts with Phillips talking about her kidney stone and from there looking at stones of all kinds. It takes the viewer on a journey meeting Palestinian quarry workers, a passionate British geologist and people living on the lava fields of Fogo in the Cape Verde Islands.
Avila is the Belgian film distributor. The producer is Peter Krüger of Inti Films from Belgium, and the co-producer is Pieter van Huystee of Pieter van Huystee Film in the Netherlands. The cinematographer is Jonathan Wannyn.
The film has the support of Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Nederlands Filmfonds, Taxshelter van de Belgische Regering, and Le Centre du Cinema de la Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles.
Benoot’s credits include “Fronterismo” (2007), “Blue Meridian” (2010) and “Desert Haze” (2014), which played at Visions du Réel. She co-directed “Victoria” (2020), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won the Caligari Prize.
In a statement, Benoot said: “My intention is to undermine the perception of the geological world that surrounds us as just dead matter, and to place it in the middle of our everyday existence, with an essay film that plays with the contrast between the everyday and the great story of the stony world.”
