#OnTheBigScreen: Mamma Mia, Back to Burgundy and Life And Nothing More

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Get ready to sing and dance, laugh, and love all over again. Ten years after Mamma Mia! The Movie grossed more than $600m, you’re invited to return to the magical Greek island of Kalokairi in an all-new original musical based on the songs of Abba.

Ol Parker, writer of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, writes the screenplay and directs Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again from a story by Richard Curtis, Parker, and Catherine Johnson, who wrote the original musicalMamma Mia! - upon which this film is based. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus return to provide music and lyrics and serve as executive producers.

Reprising their roles from Mamma Mia! The Movie is Academy award-winner Meryl Streep as Donna, Julie Walters as Rosie, and Christine Baranski as Tanya. Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper reunite as Sophie and Sky, while Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, and Oscar-winner Colin Firth return to play Sophie’s three possible dads: Sam, Bill, and Harry.

As the film goes back and forth in time to show how relationships forged in the past resonate in the present, Lily James plays the role of young Donna. Filling the roles of young Rosie and young Tanya are Alexa Davies and Jessica Keenan Wynn. Young Sam will be played by Jeremy Irvine, while young Bill is Josh Dylan, and young Harry is Hugh Skinner.

Says director Ol Parker: “We, hopefully, made a movie that will appeal to both people who loved the first movie and a film that brings a new story for new audiences.  It has a gorgeous cast, a stunning collection of songs, and everything that I could throw into it - music, laughs, joy, happiness, and sunshine.”

Back to Burgundy

Wine tells a story in French filmmaker Cédric Klapisch’s Back to Burgundy, detailing a year in the life of a fictional wine-making family in Burgundy. The taste of the family wines propel the characters back into the past, wrinkling up time for the characters.

Three siblings reunite at their home in picturesque Burgundy to save the family vineyard in this tender tale of a new generation finding its own unique blend from acclaimed director Klapisch. Jean (Pio Marmaï), the black sheep of the family, unexpectedly returns home from a decade abroad to reconnect with his hospitalised father. He’s welcomed by his strong-willed sister, Juliette (Ana Girardot), who took over the reins of the vineyard after their father fell ill, and Jeremie (François Civil), the youngest of the three who has recently married into one of the region’s more prestigious wine families.

Their father passes shortly after Jean’s return, leaving them with the estate and a looming inheritance tax of half a million dollars. As four seasons and two harvests go by, Jean, Juliette, and Jeremie have to learn to reinvent their relationship and trust in each other as they work to preserve the land that ties them together.

Life And Nothing More

A story about ordinary people, played by non-professional actors, trying to survive within a world where some individuals do not have the same opportunities as the rest of the society

Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Life and Nothing More is a fictional narrative that looks intensely at the reality of a single mother who lives in North Florida with her three children, in a context of social inequality, with a haunted and unforgiving past, who tries and struggles to make ends meet, to resist the routine and the burden of the daily life.

One of the distinctive elements of Antonio’s narrative is his aptitude to tell stories of others from the point of view of the characters themselves without the distance and judgement of a stranger’s eye, being Antonio a Spanish director telling stories about immigrants or disadvantaged citizens in their own country. He manages to immerse himself and to blend into the environment, absorbing the feelings and perspectives of his characters as if he made them his own, and that is what we intend to do this time.

A single mother struggles to maintain her household, while still eager for love. Her behaviour pushes everyone away from her. Her oldest son, full of hatred towards her perceived indifference, tries to force his place around. Only the challenge and threat of justice will bring them together and will change their lives forever.

Says Esparza: "The ambition of this film is to portray the reality it encounters. This is a film of normal people, the opposite of Hollywood. Normal and unique, faulty but with a moment of grace.  In order to accomplish this authenticity, there are non-professional actors playing the characters."