.png)
2 weeks ago
3
FilmNation Entertainment has acquired world sales rights (excluding Canada) to Chinese Canadian auteur Johnny Ma’s third feature, “The Mother and the Bear.”
Set in wintry Winnipeg, the Canada-Chile co-production follows a Korean widow (Kim Ho-jung), who flies in from Seoul after her adult daughter is comatose after a fall. As the anxious mother tries to find a suitable husband for her daughter, her meddling ways lead her into crossed wires and unexpected revelations.
“Johnny Ma’s unique blend of humor and insightful reflections on contemporary issues offers a fresh perspective that stands out in today’s film landscape,” FilmNation’s Glen Basner told Variety in an exclusive comment. “Film Nation is excited to handle the domestic and international sales, and we are thrilled that it is having its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.”
“The Mother and the Bear” is a Rhombus Media and Fabula production in association with Thin Stuff Prods. and is produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Manitoba Film and Music in association with Ashland Hill Media Finance (also executive producer), Crave and CBC Films. Elevation is the Canadian distributor.
Ma’s first feature, “Old Stone,” won best Canadian first feature at TIFF 2016.
Ma moved to Toronto from China when he was 10 and studied and worked in different fields and countries before turning his strong visual aesthetic to storytelling on film.
“‘Old Stone’ was a social noir, my second was an old Chinese opera musical, and this one is a cosmic fairy tale,” Ma told Variety earlier this week. “The one thing they share is a main character who seems born out of time.
“Winnipeg is a different time, space and culture, so the mother has to catch up and learn from it.”
Ma and Peruvian-Chilean lenser Inti Briones, both newcomers to Winnipeg before production, brought an outsider’s curiosity to the visual look.
“[Briones] told me people are disconnected in the world because they are disconnected from nature, and so telling a story about a mother reminds us to go back to our roots,” Ma continued.
“I was thinking of Winnipeg like a village in a forest in the winter, and the daughter is like Sleeping Beauty — it takes more of a nuanced sort of watching.
“They make Hallmark Christmas movies in Winnipeg, so I wanted to use different cinema languages, including comedy — thinking about screwball comedies of the 1950s and, in terms of Asian storytelling, films like Juzo Itami’s ‘Tampopo.’”
English (US) ·