Ari Folman’s The Congress to Open Director’s Fortnight at Cannes 2013

Ari Folman’s new film The Congress will open the prestigious Director’s Fortnight (Quinzaine) at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The animated film stars Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm and Paul Giamatti.

Creatively adapted from a speculative novel by Stanislaw Lem, the film’s protagonist is an aging actress (Robin Wright) who signs a post-digital Faustian contract with a film studio. Playing on the constantly shifting and increasingly blurred borders between the real, the virtual and the fictional, Robin Wright portrays herself in the film, selling the rights to her film persona to a studio. A full body imaging of the actress will be digitized to create a digital actress, keeping her eternally young, yet giving complete control of her persona to the studio.

Cool and creepy concept, with a dizzy sense of mise en abyme, the film is equal parts live action and animation. The live action was shot in California and the animation was designed, created and produced in Israel by the same team who made Waltz with Bashir, director of animation Yoni Goodman and art director David Polonsky, who oversaw both the animated and the live action parts of the film. Eitan Mantzuri produced the film together with Ari Folman, in the context of a co-production of six European countries.

The Congress (Israel/Germany/France/Belgium/Poland/Luxemburg, 2013, 123 min)
Written and directed by Ari Folman; Producers: Eitan Manzuri, Ari Folman; Animation director: Yoni Goodman; Art director: David Polonsky; Editing: Nili Feller; Cinematography: Michael Engelrat; Soundtrack design: Aviv Aldema; Original music: Max Richter; Starring: Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm, Paul Giamatti, Danny Houston and Kodi Smit-McPhee