EXCLUSIVE: Here’s the first trailer for Willem Dafoe starrer The Birthday Party, which launched at the Locarno Film Festival last month.
Miguel Ángel Jiménez directs the film, which is an adaptation of Panos Karnezis’ novel of the same name. Dafoe stars alongside Vic Carmen Sonne (The Girl With the Needle) and Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders). Emma Suárez, Carlos Cuevas and Christos Stergioglou also star.
Story is set on a secluded Mediterranean island in the summer during the late 1970s, where Marcos (Dafoe), an Onassis-like tycoon, throws a lavish and extravagant birthday party for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress on his exclusive private island. Marcos, used to ruthlessly controlling everything and everyone around him, is also secretly plotting a big decision on his daughter’s behalf. As guests start pouring in and the night moves on, the party grows rowdier and more decadent, while the inevitable clash between Marcos and Sofia thunders towards its shocking conclusion.
The film has locked a raft of international sales in Benelux, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, the Baltics, Turkey, MENA and the CIS territories. After its theatrical rollout, the project will launch on HBO Europe and streaming platform HBO Max.
A Greek, Spanish, Dutch, and UK co-production, The Birthday Party was shot entirely in Greece, with locations in Corfu and Athens. The film was financed with support from the Greek Film Centre, ICEC, the Netherlands Film Fund, and the BFI’s Global Screen Fund.
Additional backing came from Hellenic Film & Audiovisual Center – Creative Greece, ERT, Kalamata Films, Eolo Film Productions, Hopeless Romantic and Frontstage.
Executive producers include Ginevra Bulgari, Alexandra Daskalopoulou, Ivan Samokhvalov, Ioanna Stais, Talal Abu Ghazaleh, Mohamed Hefzy, Lee Broda, Alexander Tsekalo, Shane West, Richie Walls, Jeff Rice, Claudia Romero, Gabriel Kaplan, Bruno Lowagie, Ingeborg Willaert, Martien Uyttendaele, Dirk De Lille, Edgar Daarnhouwer, Olivier Mortagne, and Dries Phlypo.
Heretic and Bankside are co-repping international sales.
Check out the video above.