Juliette Binoche’s “Nobody Wants the Night” to open Berlin Film Fest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s “Nobody Wants the Night” which stars French actress Juliette Binoche, will open the Berlin Film Festival. The film will world premiere on Feb. 5 as part of the international competition, Variety reports.

Binoche, who won an Oscar for “The English Patient,” is joined in the ensemble cast by Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel,” “The Brothers Bloom,” “Pacific Rim”) and Irish thesp Gabriel Byrne (“The Usual Suspects,” “Miller’s Crossing”).

Paris-based Elle Driver handles international sales; Wild Bunch Distribution will release “Nobody Wants the Night” in France.

The adventure film is set in 1908 in Greenland, and focuses on “courageous women and ambitious men who put anything at stake for love and glory.” Pic, which is a Spanish-French-Bulgarian co-production, was shot in Bulgaria, Norway and Spain.

“Isabel Coixet has created an impressive and perceptive portrait of two women in extreme circumstances,” said Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlinale.

Six films by Coixet have been presented in various sections of past Berlinale programs, including “My Life Without Me” in 2003, and “Elegy” in 2008 in competition. In 2009, Coixet was a member of the festival’s international jury.

Kosslick added that it will be the first film to be screened in Dolby Atmos in the fest’s main venue, Berlinale Palast. Pic is also the first by a woman Spanish director ever to open the Berlin Festival. A woman’s drama set outside Spain, shot in English, and enrolling an internationally renown cast, “Nobody Wants the Night” returns Coixet to concerns which has yielded memorable titles, such as Sara Polley starrer “My Life Without Me.”

“Nobody” also reprises Coixet’s relationship with Jaume Roures at Spanish production house – and rights-broker and services giant – Mediapro, which has made a policy of backing international auteurs, whether from Spain (Coixet, Fernando Leon) or beyond (Woody Allen).

Respected Spanish arthouse producer Andres Santana also produces via Ariane & Garoé, along with Antonia Nava, one of Spain’s overseas co-production specailists, at Neo Art Producciones. Jerome Vidal at Paris’ Noodles Production, a frequent co-producer with Spain, also produces with Ariel Illief at Bulgaria’s One More Movie. Twinning financial advantages, “Nobody” shot in Bulgaria and in Tenerife and made use of Spanish tax breaks.