by Olivia Popp
– The Athens-based outlet will sell Valentina Maurel’s film and Swedish dark comedy Adult Supervision, and will continue pre-sales for Alena Lodkina’s Twice Over
Forever Your Maternal Animal by Valentina Maurel
At the Marché du Film (12-20 May) of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, Heretic will sell Valentina Maurel’s sophomore feature Forever Your Maternal Animal, which follows Elsa as she returns home to Costa Rica after living and studying in Europe for many years. Her homecoming reshapes the connective tissue binding together herself, her sister and her mother. The film will enjoy its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section as a co-production between Belgium (Wrong Men), France (Géko Film), and Mexico (Pimienta) (read news). Forever Your Maternal Animal reunites the director with Daniela Marín Navarro, who also starred in the director’s first film I Have Electric Dreams, which won the Pardo for Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor at Locarno and was later selected as the Costa Rican entry for the Oscars.
Heretic has also recently picked up Adult Supervision (Arkipelag) and will sell the work at the festival. The film is written and directed by best-selling Swedish author, blogger and radio/TV personality Alex Schulman as his debut film. Adult Supervision is a Swedish production by Warner Bros Sweden, co-produced by RMV Film, Tiisch Film, Film Stockholm and Scanbox. The film is billed as a Scandi dark comedy led by Swedish names including Gustaf Skarsgård (known for TV series including Vikings and Oppenheimer), Fares Fares (recently in Eagles of the Republic) and Linus Wahlgren (film series Crimes of Passion). The synopsis of Adult Supervision reinvigorates what its title promises: a story about three fathers chaperoning their teenage daughters on a school trip, only for buried memories to resurface and a power struggle to break out. The behind-the-camera team includes Emmy-winning cinematographer Jakob Ihre (HBO’s Chernobyl).
Presales will also continue for Alena Lodkina’s Twice Over, led by Mia Wasikowska and Charlie Heaton. The two star as individuals who reunite and begin an intense romance after a chance meeting.
In the last year, the Athens-based sales company has had great success with Dry Leaf (Locarno 2025), Little Trouble Girls (Berlinale 2025), Wind, Talk to Me (IFFR 2025) and Trial of Hein (Berlinale 2026), among others in their line-up.
