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2 months ago
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EXCLUSIVE: Serendipity Point Films (Eastern Promises) and January Media, along with their Greek partner Filmiki Productions, are underway in Athens, Greece, on feature Maya & Samar.
Directed by Anita Doron, best known for scripting Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner, and written by Tamara Faith Berger (Lie With Me), the film stars Nicolette Pearse (Maybe It’s You) and Amanda Babaei Vieira (Störung).
Pic is produced by Serendipity’s Robert Lantos, known for movies including Sunshine, Barney’s Version and Eastern Promises, and January’s Julia Rosenberg (Charlotte). Laura Lanktree (Crimes Of The Future), Steve Solomos (The Shrouds) and Filmiki’s Nikolas Alavanos (When We Were Sisters) are co-producers.
Distant Horizon’s Anant Singh (Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom) is an executive producer. VVS’s Harry Grivakis, Ernie Grivakis, Javi Hernandez, and Claire Peace-McConnell are co-executive producers.
The film shoots in Athens, Greece, and Toronto, Canada, with production set to wrap in October 2024. VVS will release in Canada; Distant Horizon will handle international sales.
The synopsis reads: “Maya, a rising journalist at a hip indie website, covers sex and music with free-flowing thought and liberal practice. Samar, a queer Afghan who landed in Greece following a harrowing escape from the Taliban, lives without papers in Athens, dancing in a club for cash. After a fateful meeting on the outskirts of Athens, their worlds collide in a brief yet torrid affair that exposes their conflicting cultures.”
“In the timeless city of Athens, bearing witness to real and imagined dramas for millenia, I feel weight and wonder in telling the story of privilege undone by resilience… Of raw, authentic humanity,” said Anita Doron. “I’m lucky to be creating with the luminous, deeply talented Nicolette Pearse and Amanda Babaei Vieira and such an engaged and charismatic, soulful cast and crew.”
“Tamara Faith Berger’s unique, erotically saturated tableaux of love and cultural conflict mirrors our dangerous times. As directed by Anita Doron’s exalted vision, this film will electrify audiences,” added Robert Lantos.
Joining Doron are DoP Christina Moumouri (The River), production designer Konstantinos Skourletis (Milky Way), and costume designer Marli Aliferi (Monday). Katie Austra Stelmanis (Swan Song) is the film’s composer with Mikaela Bodin (Last County) as editor.
Pic is a Serendipity Point Films, January Media, and Filmiki Productions co-production. The Canada-Hellenic Republic co-production is produced in association with Telefilm Canada, Greek Film Centre, Distant Horizon, Bell Media, CBC, Ontario Creates, and the Harold Greenberg Fund, with the support of EKOME.
