Ghosts of the previous begin haunting Céline, performed by Camille Cottin (Name My Agent!, Home of Gucci), in Tamara Stepanyan‘s Within the Land of Arto, which can open the 78th version of the Locarno Movie Pageant on on the Swiss lakeside city’s Piazza Grande on Wednesday, Aug. 6.
“Céline arrives in Armenia to legalize the loss of life of her husband Arto,” a plot description explains. However she discovers that he lied to her about his id. “So begins a journey by Arto’s previous, as she meets folks left disabled by the battles of 2020, veterans from the Nineties, hauntings of a unending battle” with Azerbaijan.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi additionally stars within the fiction characteristic from France-based Armenia-born Stepanyan (Embers, My Armenian Phantoms), who has to date been finest identified for her documentary work. Different solid members embrace Shant Hovhannisyan, Hovnatan Avédikian, Alexander Khachatryan, Babken Chobanyan, and Denis Lavant. Stepanyan wrote the screenplay with Jean-Christophe Ferrari, Jean Breschand, Romy Coccia di Ferro, and Jihane Chouaib.
“A lady chases a ghost, however how ought to she bury it?” asks the Locarno competition web site. “Can the lifeless be saved?”
“I not reside in Armenia, nevertheless it haunts me like an amputated limb, residing inside me like a ghost,” Stepanyan shares in a director’s assertion.
THR can completely share two clips from Within the Land of Arto, which is a French-Armenian co-production. Be For Movies is dealing with gross sales duties on the film.
Within the first clip, Céline is trying to monitor down Arto’s beginning certificates – solely to run into an surprising problem. Take a look at that scene beneath.
Within the second clip, Cottin and Amir Ebrahimi’s characters drive in the direction of their subsequent vacation spot and share insights into their lives, with the latter discussing defending household and motherland. Their trade ends with ideas on happiness.
Watch the clip beneath.
The Locarno Movie Pageant 2025 runs Aug. 6-16.