CINEUROPA – Elvis Walks Home wraps shooting in Albania

Elvis Walks Home, the new film by Albania’s Fatmir Koci, finished principal photography in Tirana on 26 September, UK production company Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) announced in a press release. 

The film is based on an original screenplay by Welsh writer Jonathan Preece and tells the story of Mickey, an illegal Albanian who used to live in London and is a part-time Elvis Presley impersonator. He gets a job entertaining British peacekeeping troops during the 1999 Balkan wars. When backstage problems ensue, Mickey (dressed as Elvis Presley) flees – straight into the war zone. He meets and is captured by a group of child refugees caught up in the merciless war.

UK-based actor Dritan Kastrati, who plays the role of Mickey, starred in Koci’s previous films Pit Stop Mafia and Amsterdam Express, and the two worked on the latter with Preece and F&ME producer Mike Downey. Koci’s outfit Kkoci Productions is producing on the Albanian side.

The movie is financed through the Arts Council of Wales and Creative Europe’s MEDIA programme, and has secured funding from the Albanian Film Centre. It will also benefit from the tax credit as well as key private equity funding from the UK and Albania. Saer Medical, of Tirana, joined the production as a 10% minor co-producer. The international sales for the title are open.

In other news from F&ME, the prolific company is completing post-production on Georgian director Mariam Khatchvani‘s debut feature, DeDe. Also in post-production are the biopic Tom of Finland by Dome Karukoski, which will be handled internationally by Protagonist Pictures, and Volker Schlöndorff’s Return to Montauk (which it is working on together with Germany’s Ziegler Film, France’s Pyramide Productions and Gaumont, and Ireland’s Savage Productions).

F&ME is currently looking to complete financing on How To Sell a War by Rudolph Herzog, and titles in the late stages of financing include The Disciple, written by Ida [+] scriptwriter Rebecca Lenckiewicz and directed by Ivan Ostrochovsky (Koza [+]), and My Eyes Are Yours (working title) by Konstantin Bojanov (Ave [+]).