Valeska Grisebach's Film Competes for Palme d’Or
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- Valeska Grisebach returns to Cannes with her new film “The Dreamed Adventure,” selected to compete for the Palme d’Or.
- The Match Factory will handle international sales for “The Dreamed Adventure.”
- The Dreamed Adventure is set in a southeastern Bulgarian border town and follows a woman who enters illegal trade to aid a man she bonds with, confronting her desires and past.
- Valeska Grisebach says the film was inspired by her encounters with peers who lived through Bulgaria’s 1989 political changes, highlighting how that turning point both connects and divides people.
- Yana Radeva stars alongside Syuleyman Halil Letifov in the film, which is a co‑production involving Komplizen Film, Kazak Productions, Miramar Film, Panama Film, New Matter Films, ARTE France Cinéma, and ZDF/ARTE.
- Creative Europe MEDIA is among the European cultural bodies funding the film, alongside German, French, Bulgarian and Austrian institutions.
Why it matters: The Cannes competition slot gives Grisebach a high‑profile platform to showcase a story rooted in Bulgaria’s 1989 transition, potentially boosting the film’s international distribution and reinforcing European cultural funding’s impact on auteur cinema. It also signals confidence from a diverse coalition of German, French, Bulgarian and Austrian backers, underscoring the cross‑border collaboration that underpins the project.
