CM 2023

Own investment

Eldorado

CineMart 2023 - Eldorado

Goals at CineMart We are looking for potential co-producers from Belgium, Switzerland, Italy. The content of the story and the shooting locations allow several co-production possibilities. An international cast should also be attached to the project.&nbsp;Crew nationalities and post-production location are also flexible.&nbsp; We are also looking to meet with potential financing partners, broadcasters, sales, and distributors.&nbsp;Synopsis A group of African migrants arrive to the north of Morocco in order to cross the sea, looking for a secret island called Eldorado. The legend says that a fair and equal world has been created there.On the day of their crossing, a planning mistake is made by the smuggler and another group of regular Moroccan migrants who were supposed to ship to Spain also find themselves on board for Eldorado.Once they cross the sea, the Eldorado police arrests them and takes them into a "welcome centre" where they are introduced to the rules of this new society. They need to stay there until the board decides whether to grant them Eldorado citizenship or to reject it. During the time they spend in the centre they need to work to cover the expenses of their stay, so they work in the tomato sauce processing factory implanted in the centre. The tomato sauce brand goes by the name of Eldorado.While the sub-Saharan group tries to blend in and follow the rules to get accepted, the Moroccans, who didn't know anything about this island, set up a plan to escape from the centre. But what both groups ignore is that there is no secret island, there is no Eldorado, they never even left Morocco: there is only a factory and free workers.The film is intercut by several pop kitsch adverts for the Eldorado products "Ketchup, pasta and pizza sauce."&nbsp;Director&rsquo;s Biography Alaa Eddine Aljem (1988) is an Italian-Moroccan screenwriter and director born in Rabat (Morocco). He studied cinema at ESAVM then at INSAS in Brussels. Alaa's films have participated in several festivals around the world. His latest short film The Desert Fish won the Grand Prize, the Critics' Prize and the Screenplay Prize at the National Film Festival and was highly acclaimed internationally.The screenplay for his first feature film The Unknown Saint won an award at the 68th Locarno Film Festival, and was selected for the Fabrique des Cin&eacute;mas du Monde in Cannes, and for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.In 2016 Alaa was designated as one of the five Arab Stars of Tomorrow by Screen International&nbsp;magazine, with a ceremony in Dubai. Since 2017 Alaa co-writes and collaborates with several international film projects. In 2019, he released his first feature film The Unknown Saint,&nbsp;a burlesque fable which had its world premiere at the Cannes Critics' Week and was acclaimed by French and international critics. The film was distributed in several countries and preselected for the Oscars in the category of Best foreign film. In 2021, Alaa was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.

Le Moindre Geste

A group of migrants seeks to reach Eldorado, a secret utopian island where everyone lives in peace – and eventually ends up in a factory of the same name that produces tomato sauce.