Tigerlily Productions To Present At Berlin Film Festival

Tigerlily Productions has confirmed it is to present three new films at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, 11 – 21 February.

The films are Remainder, The Lovers and the Despot, and The Ones Below and all three will be entered in the Panorama Audience Award for Feature Fiction and Documentary.

Remainder will make its international debut at the festival. It has been produced by Tigerlily and is based on the novel by Tom McCarthy and starring Tom Sturridge. Omer Fast's plot follows a young man who tries to reconstruct his past out of fragmented memories. His obsessive efforts are funded by a large financial settlement for an accident he cannot remember, but he, nor his friends, can anticipate the extremes he will go to in realising his quest. The 100-minute movie will be released in cinemas in the UK in May.

Produced by Hellflower Films and Tigerlily Productions, The Lovers and the Despot (94 minutes) will be screened following critical acclaim at Sundance. The film is a romance-thriller documentary set against the backdrop of South Korean society in the aftermath of the Korean War. It tells the story of young and ambitious film director Shin Sang-ok and talented actress Choi Eun-hee. Their lives take a bizarre turn when, following kidnap and imprisonment, they are eventually reunited by movie obsessed Kim Jong-il, who declares them his own filmmakers. Having rekindled their love for each other, they plan their escape from North Korea.

The Ones Below will also receive its European premiere at Berlin. At 87 minutes in length, it has been produced by Tigerlily and Cuba Pictures, and is David Farr's dark, modern fairytale in which the lives of two couples become fatally entwined.

Kate (Clemence Poesy) and Justin (Stephen Campbell Moore) 30-something, successful and affluent, and are expecting their first baby. However, while everything appears well on the surface, Kate has deeply rooted fears about her fitness to be a mother and her ability to love the child within. One day another couple, Jon (David Morrissey) and Teresa (Laura Birn), move into the apartment below. They become 'The Ones Below' and are also expecting a baby. In contrast to Kate, Teresa is full of joy at the prospect of imminent motherhood. Pregnancy brings the women together in shared confidences, as Kate becomes entranced by Teresa's unquestioning celebration of her family-to-be. Until one night a joint dinner begins to reveal all is not as it seems with 'The Ones Below' and a single tragic accident throws the couples into a nightmare of psychological terror. The Ones Below is released by Icon in UK cinemas in March.

Natasha Dack Ojumu and Nikki Parrott, co-directors of Tigerlily, said: "We are thrilled to have three films at this year's festival. Berlin is one of the best places to debut new independent films and very special to us having won the prestigious Caligari prize in 2007 for our documentary 37 Uses For A Dead Sheep. We are particularly looking forward to seeing audience reaction to the new films."

Image: Remainder. © Photo: Chris Harris.

www.tigerlilyproductions.com

(JP/MH)