– The sales agent will be counting on Laïla Marrakchi and Christophe Dimitri Réveille in the Official Selection, and Jorge Thielen Armand and Dominga Sotomayor Castillo in the Directors’ Fortnight
Strawberries by Laïla Marrakchi
Launched at the beginning of 2025, the French company Lucky Number quickly found its place within the ultra-competitive landscape of international sales agents, and it will return to the Croisette for the Marché du Film (12-20 May) of the 79th Cannes Film Festival with plenty of ambition and four feature films showcased across the various sections.
The team led by Olivier Barbier, Ola Byszuk and Lenny Porte will notably be handling sales for Strawberries by Moroccan filmmaker Laïla Marrakchi, which will premiere in Un Certain Regard. Written by the director together with Delphine Agut, the filmmaker’s third feature — following Marock, unveiled in Un Certain Regard in 2005, and Rock The Casbah, presented in Toronto in 2013 — stars Nisrin Erradi in the lead role. The film follows Hasna and Meriem, two young women with limited opportunities, who leave their native Morocco to work as seasonal laborers picking strawberries in Southern Spain. Hoping to return home and provide a better life for their families, their dreams clash with a harsh reality: abuse, harassment, and inhumane living conditions at the hands of their employers. Their bond as a united sisterhood empowers them to rise above their harsh living conditions, despite the risks involved in fighting for their rights. They are ultimately forced to make the difficult decision to speak out against a powerful patriarchal system, risking everything in the pursuit of their personal justice. Strawberries is produced by French companies Lumen and Atelier de Production, in co-production with Fasten Films (Spain), Mont Fleuri Production (Morocco) and Mirage Films (Belgium).
In a Special Screening within the Official Selection, Lucky Number will be backing the animated documentary Che Guevara: The Last Companions by French filmmaker Christophe Dimitri Réveille; the film recounts the journey of three guerrilla fighters hunted down in 1967 across 2,400 kilometres and over the course of five months, from Bolivia to Chile, following the execution of Che Guevara… The film is produced by the French companies Pentacle Productions and MacGuff.
In the Directors’ Fortnight, two South American titles stand out in Lucky Number’s line-up: Death Has No Master by Venezuelan filmmaker Jorge Thielen Armand — first noticed at the Biennale College Cinema in 2011 with The Solitude, and later in competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2020 with La Fortaleza — starring Asia Argento and produced by La Faena Films (Canada/Venezuela), Volos Films (Italy) and Deal Productions (Luxembourg); and La Perra by Dominga Sotomayor Castillo — her fifth feature following, among others, Thursday to Sunday (winner in Rotterdam in 2012), Mar at the Berlin International Film Festival’s Forum in 2015, and Too Late to Die Young (Best Director in Locarno in 2018) — produced by Chile and Brazil.
At the Marché du Film, Lucky Number will also be presenting two titles currently in post-production: Leila et la nuit (working title) by Brazilian filmmaker Fellipe Barbosa (Casa Grande, Gabriel and the Mountain, Sunday), starring Roschdy Zem, Marina Foïs, Sayyid El Alami, Oulaya Amamra and Françoise Lebrun, a co-production between France, Brazil and Morocco; and Any Other Night by Dutch filmmaker Michiel ten Horn (Fabula), produced by the Netherlands in co-production with Germany and Canada. The slate also includes the upcoming production Pipaluk, The Girl Who Raced the Wind by Thierry Machado (read the news), alongside several further announcements still to come.
(Translated from French)
