“Don’t Let Me Die” directed by Andrei Epure, produced by Saga Film, Tomsa Films

Paris-based Tomsa Films will co-produce Andrei Epure’s first feature film, Don’t Let Me Die. Founded in 2018, the company is also behind Laura Samani’s acclaimed Cannes Critics’ Week premiere Small Body and documentary Zaho Zay.

“Don’t Let Me Die” follows the aftermath of a woman’s death in front of her apartment building. Her neighbor Maria is interrogated by the police and ends up taking over the funeral. She finds herself in a maze of bureaucracy as she tries to escape the feeling that she is being followed.

Produced by Alexandru Teodorescu and Ana Gheorghe of Bucharest-based production company Saga Film, the project has received production support from the Romanian CNC and is about to apply for funding in France. The start of production is currently planned for early 2024.

“I was riding the bus one day and some strangers were talking about a Romanian journalist who was found dead in her apartment two weeks later. I witnessed an impromptu eulogy between a few bus stops,” Epure said, noting that his film will “explore the agony of death in utter indifference.”

“This is a tale of alienation that describes the haunted realms we live in, where the ordinary becomes mysterious and the strange becomes familiar. I look for images, camera movements and sounds that embody not only the way we look at death, but the way death looks at us.”

Tomsa Films’ Thomas Lambert was busy in Locarno this week presenting two projects at Alliance 4 Development, a co-development program by Locarno Pro for film projects from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland

In Vero Cratzborn’s Molecules, two twin sisters struggle to maintain their bond while one suffers from a degenerative disease.

“They are like ivy around a tree. When they try to separate, blood splatters,” observed Lambert, speaking of the story in which “the savior is a tragic hero, and devotion and sacrifice bring power, but come at a terrible cost.”

He will also co-produce Stéphane Riethauser’s Orpheus with Swiss Véronique Vergari (Luna Films), about a contentious relationship between a choreographer and his much younger dancer.

“The project has had a great aura since it was developed at the Résidence du Festival in Cannes this year,” Lambert said of Don’t Let Me Die, a sequel to Epure’s short film Interfon 15, which opened at the Critics’ premiered in Cannes. week in 2021.

“By blending dark comedy and horror, this will be a disturbing debut feature that invites audiences into a dialogue between the dead and the living.”