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After a sudden suicide turns a small eel-farming town upside down, an investigation unearths troubling secrets about the town’s past. Those discoveries will bring together two women trapped in solitary lives, offering each a chance to find salvation.

“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the third feature by Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas. Starring frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali (“In the Fade”), the film will world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.

Taking its name from the mysterious region of the North Atlantic, a swirling gyre of deep-blue water bounded by four ocean currents, “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the story of two women dreaming of escape.

Their arduous emotional journey echoes a remarkable natural phenomenon, when eels in Europe and North America reaching sexual maturity leave their habitats and swim hundreds of miles to lay their eggs in the Sargasso.

The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea

Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas is finally getting ready to unveil his third feature, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea in 2019, reuniting with his A Blast actress Aggeliki Papoulia (we interviewed the Lanthimos regular back in 2012 for Alps) and co-writer Youla Boudali for this revenge thriller. The Greek-German-Swedish co-production is produced by his regular collaborator Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films and co-produced by Ellen Havenith of Prpl, Titus Kreyenberg of unafilm and Olle Wirenhed of Dragon Films. Papoulia and Boudali’s co-stars include Christos Passalis, Maria Filini, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris and Laertis Malkotsis.…...

Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teasers for Syllas Tzoumerkas’ female revenge story “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” – being sold at Afm by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.

Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.

Exclusive: Film produced by Belgium’s Bulletproof Cupid will screen at Tiff Kids.

LevelK has boarded international sales on Meikeminne Clinckspoor’s family film Cloudboy.

Jekino will release in Belgium on April 5 and the film will have its international premiere at Tiff Kids in Toronto (April 7-23).

Cloudboy is set in Belgium and Sweden, about 12-year old Belgian boy Niilas, who is sent to stay with his mother in Swedish Lapland, amongst the reindeer-herding Sami people. At first he wants to go back home to his familiar city life, but when a reindeer goes missing he finds himself on a magical adventure in Lapland.

Katleen Goossens produces for Belgium’s Bulletproof Cupid in co-production with Sabine Veenendaal of Submarine Film in the Netherlands and Olle Wirenhed of Götafilm International in Sweden.

The film, budgeted at $1.7m (€1.6m), was financed by The Flemish Audiovisual Fund, The Tax Shelter of the Belgian Government, Filmpool Nord, Filmcamp...