Paris-based gross sales firm Loco Movies has acquired world gross sales rights to Mari Sanders’ “Stand Up” forward of its world premiere on the Tribeca Film Festival and is launching gross sales on the Cannes Market.
The Dutch director’s debut tells the story of Vera, a fun-loving 23-year-old lady whose life is upended when an accident leaves her in a wheelchair. Now not feeling that she suits into her outdated life, she’s drawn into the world of Xander, a younger man who has all the time lived with incapacity.
Pressured to make a tough selection, Vera should resolve whether or not to maintain combating to belong to the world she as soon as inhabited, or threat claiming a spot in a world she by no means imagined for herself.
“Stand Up,” which world premieres in Tribeca’s worldwide narrative competitors, is produced by Ineke Kanters and Lisette Kelder of Dutch manufacturing outfit the Movie Kitchen, in co-production with Amanda Livanou and Katerina Tzourou of Greece’s Neda Movie and Robert Kievit. It stars Lucia Zemene, Daan Buringa, Kendrick Etmon, Hana Hussein, Man Clemens and Tamar van den Dop.
Loco Movie’s Laurent Danielou described the movie as “a powerful and emotional portrait of a young woman reinventing her life in a wheelchair, brought to the screen with sincerity, charm and a fresh perspective on disability representation.”
Sanders, who was born with cerebral palsy and has used a wheelchair his total life, advised Selection that “Stand Up” was born partly from a need to convey better visibility to individuals dwelling with disabilities.
“In ‘Stand Up,’ I reveal a world that often goes unnoticed: the lives of young people with disabilities, their challenges, their culture and their perspectives. The film examines the difference between being born with a disability and acquiring one later and explores how such an event reshapes a life and an identity,” he says. “At the heart of the film is a question: to what extent does a disability define who you are?”
Noting that roughly 15% of the world’s inhabitants dwell with some type of incapacity — what he describes as “the largest minority in the world, yet one of the least represented on screen” — Sanders mentioned his inspiration for the movie was deeply private.
“Growing up in special education, I connected with others navigating similar paths,” he mentioned. “I was part of a world as rich and full as any other, yet essentially invisible in cinema. I wanted to change that.”
Every of the actors portraying a personality with a incapacity in “Stand Up” has one in actual life, with Sanders describing it as “an artistic choice essential for authenticity, and one that nurtures an overlooked pool of talent.”
“We worked with actors, many of whom brought their own experiences into the story, combining fiction with documentary elements to portray life with a disability precisely and poetically,” he mentioned. “Ultimately, this film is a celebration of vulnerability, and a tale about our ever-changing bodies and how that reflects on our identity.”
