Gabrielle
© Alamode Filmdistribution OHG
The French-Canadian film “Gabrielle” by Louise Archambault is to open the 21st Filmfest Hamburg on the 26th September.
Programme Director Kathrin Kohlstedde explains the choice as follows: “The director takes us into Gabrielle’s world with so much tact, warm-heartedness, humour and respect that it is as if she is opening up the entire universe.”
Gabrielle – a young woman with Williams syndrome – has an infectious joie de vivre and an extraordinary gift for music. She meets her sweetheart, Martin, in a leisure centre where they sing in a choir – and they become inseparable. However, because they are different, the people around them do not allow them to express their love in the way they would like to. As the group prepares for an important music festival, Gabrielle does everything to prove her autonomy and to become independent. In her desire to experience a love story with Martin which is anything but ordinary, she is confronted by both the prejudices of others and by her own limitations.
“Québec is currently one of the most exciting, creative and multifaceted film-producing region, and has given Filmfest Hamburg the most beautiful of films and most magical of cinema experiences time and again over the past few years. It is therefore no surprise that we are opening the Filmfest with a film from Québec,” says Festival Director Albert Wiederspiel.
Producers Kim McCraw and Luc Déry, director Louise Archambault and leading actress and actor Gabrielle Marion-Rivard and Alexandre Landry are to attend the German premiere in Hamburg. “Gabrielle” won the audience award at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival, where it received standing ovations on the piazza.
“Gabrielle” was produced by the Montreal-based company micro_scope, as was “Monsieur Lazhar” (closing film, Filmfest Hamburg 2011). The German film distributor Alamode Film is set to bring “Gabrielle” to German cinemas on the 1st May 2014.
A press screening will take place at 12:30pm on the 11th September 2013 at the Abaton Cinema in Hamburg.
