– With Congo Boy, Rehearsals for a Revolution and Dua in display, the French international sales agent is sharpening its artistic arsenal
Congo Boy by Rafiki Fariala
Building on the success of its Berlin EFM, spearheaded by Alain Gomis’s competition entry Dao, and as is its custom, making a strong showing on the Croisette with films often unearthed from the most unexpected corners, the French international sales agent The Party Film Sales (headed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier) will be attending the Marché du Film (12–20 May) at the 79th Cannes Film Festival with three major titles to capitalise on.
Selected for Un Certain Regard, Congo Boy, the debut fiction feature by Congolese filmmaker Rafiki Fariala (noticed at the 2022 Berlinale Panorama with the documentary We, Students!), is set in Bangui in the Central African Republic. 17 year-old Robert dreams of a career in music, but civil war is tearing the country apart. When both his parents are thrown in prison, he is left to look after his four younger siblings on his own, while juggling daily life, odd jobs, school exams and concert stages, determined to pursue his dream. A production by Makongo Films (Central African Republic), co-produced with Unité (France), Kiripi Films (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Karta Film (Italy).
The team at The Party Film Sales, led by Estelle de Araujo and Samuel Blanc, will also back another title selected in the Official Selection: The Rehearsals for a Revolution, the debut documentary feature by Iranian filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani, which will be unveiled in a special screening. Through five portraits of relatives and mentors, five expressions of resistance, Pegah Ahangarani sketches her life story. Drawing from personal archives, home videos, street protests footage, newspapers, and recorded voices, she retraces more than 40 years of Iran’s history. From the early days of 1979 to the war that began in 2026, she pieces together intimate and collective memories, forming the portrait of a country shaped by political repression and in constant hope for a revolution. A production by the Czech company Media Nest, co-produced with the Spanish company Fasten Films.
The French sales company will also be represented in competition at Critics’ Week with Dua by Kosovar filmmaker Blerta Basholli (who won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021 with Hive). Written by the director and Nicole Borgeat, the story begins in Prishtina, Kosovo, in the late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body. After an incident that shakes her community, she becomes a target and forms a friendship with a fearless girl, Maki, who draws her into an unexpected form of resistance. Between everyday violence and the growing threat of exile, there is little room for a quiet coming of age… The film was produced by Ikonë Studio, in co-production with Alva Film and Kazak Productions.
At the Marché du Film, The Party Film Sales will also be presenting Ordinary Women by Dominique Cabrera (a fiction feature starring Yolande Moreau, Hélène Vincent and Eva Huault), the documentary Life of an Etoile by James Bort (about opera dancer Dorothée Gilbert), and You Shall Not Make an Image by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (article).
(Translated from French)
