The 24th edition of the Venice Critics’ Week has unveiled ‘Little Foxes’, the Irish Czech Slovakian co-production, as one of their ten world premiere first features to be presented at the 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).
A co-production between Dublin based Samson Films, Cineart TV in Prague and Miras SRO in Slovakia, the film was shot on location in Bray Co. Wicklow over a five week period during July 2008.
Written and directed by Mira Fornayova, the film tells the story of a Slovakian au pair who comes to live in Dublin on the insistence of her sister, who has married an Irishman. The two sisters carry a dark secret from their home country, which manifests itself in the form of a strange new friend in Dublin. ‘Little Foxes’ was produced by Brian Willis (Short Order), David Collins (Samson Films), Juraj Buzalka (Miras) and Viktor Schwartz (Cineart).
The feature film stars Jonathan Byrne (Fair City, The Honeymooners) and Aaron Monaghan (Deep Breaths, Ella Enchanted) as well as Yvonne Scanlon (The Daisy Chain), Julia Krynke (Echos) and Nicholas Pinnock (Footballers Wives).
Director of Photography on the project was Tomás Sysel, other crew involved on the production were Philip Murphy (Set Dresser), Paddy McCarney (Location manager), Jane McCabe (Production Co-Coordinator), Maggie Mitchell (Script Editor) and Adrian Devane (Line Producer).
The feature was funded by the Irish Film Board, Eurimages, Czech TV, the Czech and Slovak Film Fund and Section 481.
Also featuring in the Eurocentric Venice Critics Week 2009 competition are:
A Rational Solution (Det Enda Rationella) by Jorgen Bergmark, Sweden
Café Noir by Jung-Sung-il, Korea
Domanie by Patric Chiha, France
Good Morning Aman by Claudio Noce, Italy
Like Scampi (Kakraki) by Ilya Demichev, Russia
Tehroun by Nader T Homayoun, Iran-France
All debut works were independently selected by a commission nominated by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Critics.
The seven competing titles are eligible to compete for Venice’s Luigi De Laurentiis “Lion of the Future” award for first works that comes with $100,000 in prize money and a new audience prize sponsored by the Veneto region that carries a €5,000 prize.
