Topkapi Films’ coproduction Land and Shade (original title: La Tierra y la Sombra) has been selected for this year’s first Hubert Bals Fund Plus round.
Land and Shade is the first film by Colombian filmmaker César Acevedo. An old farmer returns to his home, but has become completely alienated from his family and the village where he grew up. Danger looms on all sides across the vast, shimmering sugar cane fields; industrial progress is bringing far-reaching changes to the poor countryside. A heartrending and socially aware family drama plays out between towering crops and choking dust. The film is produced by Burning Blue from Colombia and co-produced by Ciné-Sud Promotion from France, German production company Una Films and Topkapi Films from the Netherlands.
The Colombian film will receive a contribution of €50.000, supported by the Netherlands Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to help remarkable or urgent feature films by innovative and talented filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe on their road to completion. Additionally, in order to offer Dutch producers the possibility to get involved more often in international productions, and to support the Hubert Bals Fund projects in the stage of actual production, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Hubert Bals Fund set up Hubert Bals Fund Plus. Since 2006, the Dutch Film Fund has annually made €200.000 available for the Hubert Bals Fund Plus. Selected applications are granted with a maximum of €50.000.