Zik Zak Filmworks is in Cannes with Sólveigh Anspach’s (pictured) The Together Project selected at the Directors’ Fortnight and Isold Uggadóttir’s debut feature And Breathe Normally set to start filming in September.

The Together Project is late Icelandic/US director Anspach’s film about life in France and Iceland and her second film produced by Zik Zak Filmworks, with Back Soon from 2008. The light-hearted romantic comedy has a handful of Icelandic actors in secondary roles: Didda Jónsdóttir, Frosti Jón Runólfsson, Ingvar E. Sigurdsson and Kristbjörg Kjeld. In the main roles are French actors Florence Loiret Caille and Samir Guesmi. 

Speaking about the late writer/director Anspach who passed away while editing the film, Skúli Malmquist, Zik Zak co-founder said: “Sólveig’s unique generosity, energy and open-mind is reflected in this film." 

The Together Project was majority produced by Patrick Sobelman from France’s Ex Nihilo. Sobelman’s presentation of the film on Wednesday in Cannes with French distributor Jean Labadie (Le Pacte) and Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux was welcomed by a standing ovation. Le Pacte handles world sales.

Zik Zak’s other film And Breathe Normally by Uggadóttir will be the first Icelandic feature film about asylum seekers apprehended and detained at Iceland’s Keflavik airport. In the film, a Ugandan asylum seeker on route to Canada forges an unlikely bond with the border patrol officer who apprehends her, a struggling Icelandic mother on the verge of homelessness.

The €1.7m film is co-produced by Sweden’s Annika Hellström (Cinenic Film) and Belgium’s Diana Elbaum (Entre Chien et Loup), with support among others from the Icelandic Film Centre and the Swedish Film Institute. A deal with a major sales agent will be announced shortly.

Zik Zak Filmwork’s other co-founder Thor Sigurjonsson will also be in Cannes as executive producer of Nicolas Winding Refn’s competition entry The Neon Demon.