EXCLUSIVE: First clapperboard for Zé by Lkhagvadulam Purev

25/10/2022 – The Mongolian director, winner this year of the competition for short films in Venice and Toronto, is moving on to feature films. A production led by the French company Aurora Films

Prize for the best short film this year in Venice, in Toronto and most recently in the Hamptons with Snow in September after having participated in the Cannes competition in 2020 with mountain catthe Mongolian filmmaker Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir yesterday started the shooting of his first feature film: Ze. In the casting stand out Tergel Bold-Erdene and Nomin-Erdene Ariunbyamba.

Written by the director, the screenplay focuses on Zé who is in his last year of high school: he is 17 years old and he is a shaman. One day, he meets Marla, a delicate but suspicious young woman, who has come to visit the Spirit of Zé because of her illness. Love at first sight is immediate. When Marla rejects his affection, Zé confronts for the first time the limits of spirituality, love and its evolution… Ze is the sober portrait of adolescent emotions in today’s Ulaanbaatar.

Produced by Katia Khazak and Charlotte Vincent for Aurora Movies, Ze is co-produced by Guru Media (Mongolia), Uma Pedra no Sapato (Portugal), Volya Films (Netherlands) and in association with 27 Movies Production (Germany). Supported by Aid to World Cinemas from CNCaid for the co-production of Franco-Portuguese cinematographic works, the NFF+HBF Co-production scheme (which associates the Netherlands Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund), the HBF+Europe: Minority Co-production support (another program initiated by the Hubert Bals Fund), the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund and Arte, the feature also benefited from the support of ARRI, the MEDIA program, writing assistance from CICLIC (Centre-Val de Loire region) and the Hubert Bals Fund. Winner of the Production Open Doors Hub grant in Locarno in 2020, the project also won two prizes at the Torino Film Lab: CNC mention in 2019 and Postproduction Award in 2021. Filming will take place from October 24 to December 2 with the Portuguese Vasco Viana (Tommy Guns [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Carlos Conceição
fiche film], Montana [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : João Salaviza
fiche film]) to the director of photography. French distribution and international sales are in negotiations.

For the record, Aurora Films unveiled in May at Cannes Return to Seoul [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Davy Chou
fiche film] of Davy Chou (attraction of Un Certain Regard and acquired in particular for many territories by Sony Pictures Classics and by MUBI, Cambodian candidate for the next Oscar for best international film, and which will be released on January 25 in French cinemas), on the Piazza Grande in Locarno Annie Anger [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] of Blandine Lenoir (released in France on November 30) and at the Venetian Giornate degli Autori (with the Europa Cinemas label at stake) Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Wissam Charaf
fiche film] of Wissam Sharaf (released in France on April 26, 2023). And in post-production tip The Beast in the Jungle of Patrick Chiha (read thearticle).