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Fandango Sales has boarded international sales on “The Girl With the Leica,” directed by Alina Marazzi, just announced by the Venice Film Festival as the opening film of its Horizons section.
The film paints a portrait
of pioneering photojournalist Gerda Taro, the German-Jewish war photographer, anti-fascist and artist whose legacy has long been overshadowed. Together with her partner, the Hungarian photographer André Friedmann, Taro created the fictional photographer “Robert Capa” — a pseudonym adopted by Friedmann designed to overcome growing political intolerance in Europe and appeal to the American market. As a result, many of the photographs long attributed to Capa were in fact taken by Taro. While covering the Spanish Civil War, she became the first female photojournalist to be killed on the battlefield.
“The Girl With the Leica” re-centers the story firmly on Taro herself — her work, her deeply held political beliefs, and the vibrant circle of admirers, artists and intellectuals drawn to her beauty, intelligence and independence.
The film is set in Paris on July 14, 1937. Taro spends her final day before returning to the Spanish front with Capa, and the close friends with whom she escaped Nazi Germany. As past and present intertwine, the defining moments of her life resurface: her political activism in Leipzig alongside her first love, her years of exile in Paris, her whirlwind romance with Capa, her discovery of photography, and her growing determination to use her Leica as a tool for resistance and freedom.
Raffaella Di Giulio, managing director, international sales and acquisitions for Fandango Sales, commented, “We are delighted to reunite with Vivo Film and to work for the first time with Alina. Through a beautiful and poetic blend of archival footage and fiction, she has crafted a stunning film that lets audiences rediscover a long-forgotten figure: Gerda Taro. We cannot wait to share her story with distributors and audiences alike.”
Producers Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa for Vivo Film and Jonas Dornbach for Komplizen Film added: “Gerda Taro’s story feels even more urgent and relevant today than when we first began developing the project years ago. Through her work, she fought for freedom and never lost sight of the political power of photography, especially in times of war. Alina Marazzi is one of the most distinctive voices in Italian cinema. With this film she takes a remarkable step into fiction while remaining deeply true to what has always defined her work: an exploration of women’s lives, a creative incorporation of archival material, and a constant dialogue between history and the present.”
The film features Emilia Schüle, Aaron Altaras, Luna Wedler, Lucas Englander and Thomas Schubert, along with Sebastian Schneider, Idan Weiss, Lia von Blarer, Hans-Christian Hegewald, Jeremy Mockridge and Joel Basman.
Schüle, who stars as Taro, is best known for playing the lead role in the Canal+ and BBC Series “Marie Antoinette” and TV roles including Netflix’s “Der Parfumeur” and ZDF’s popular “Ku’damm” series. Her film credits include recent Berlinale breakout “The Trial of Hein,” as well as German box-office hits “Wunderschön” and “Wunderschöner.”
“The Girl With the Leica” was lensed by Chilean-Danish cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro, known for his Lars von Trier collaborations including “Melancholia” and “Nymphomaniac,” and integrates images shot by Taro as well as rarely seen archival material into the drama.
The film is freely adapted from Helena Janeczek’s novel “The Girl With the Leica” (2017), recognized in Italy with the Premio Strega — widely regarded as Italy’s most prestigious literary award. The novel also won the Premio Bagutta, one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes, before being translated into several languages, including English, German, French and Spanish, and published in 15 countries.
Marazzi is an acclaimed director working across documentary, fiction and theater, with women’s subjectivity and the imagery of memory at the heart of her work. Her films include “For One More Hour With You” (Un’ora sola ti vorrei), which received a Special Jury Mention at the 2002 Locarno Film Festival; “We Want Roses Too” (Vogliamo anche le rose), presented at Locarno and winner of the FOCAL Award in 2008; and “All About You” (Tutto parla di te), winner of the Tao Due – Caméra d’Or Award at the Rome Film Festival in 2012. She is also co-artistic director of the UnArchive Found Footage Fest.
The screenplay was written by Marazzi and Valia Santella, freely adapted from the novel by Janeczek.
“The Girl With the Leica” is an Italian-German co-production, produced by Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa for Italy’s Vivo Film with Rai Cinema, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski and Maren Ade for Germany’s Komplizen Film, in co-production with ZDF/ARTE, in association with Beatrice Bordone Bulgari for Eolo Film Productions, in co-production with Film i Väst and Zentropa Sweden, with the support of Eurimages – Council of Europe; MIC – Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo; with the contribution of PR FESR Piemonte 2021 – 2027 Bando Piemonte Film TV Fund; with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte; with the support of Avviso pubblico Lazio Cinema International (PR FESR Lazio 2021-2027); with the support of DFFF – Deutscher Filmförderfonds and MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung; with the support of Creative Europe Media.
The film will be distributed in Italy by BIM Distribuzione with a release date to be announced and released in Germany by Port au Prince.
