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French sales company Charades has come on board to handle international sales for Import, the debut feature film from Canadian director Paul Shkordoff. The film is currently in post-production and centers on the high-stakes world of European professional basketball.
A Story of Ambition and Identity on the Basketball Court
Shkordoff co-wrote the script with Frank Graziano, who previously co-wrote Murina, winner of the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 2021. The film follows Danny Ingram, a former high-school basketball prospect whose professional dreams collapse after a serious injury. Determined to revive his career, Danny travels to Eastern Europe to seek a second chance.
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In Serbia, he struggles to break into the competitive basketball scene. Recruiters repeatedly turn him away. Desperate to keep playing, Danny hides his injury and crosses paths with Nima, a Syrian nurse who supports the local migrant community and offers him a job. When a chance to play for the legendary Partizan club finally appears, Danny faces a difficult choice about how far he will go to reclaim his dream.
American professional basketball player Jawaun Daniels, who has played for clubs across Europe, leads the cast. He stars alongside Alexis Manenti, known for Les Misérables, and Mouna Soualem, known for The Little Sister. The production filmed on location in Belgrade, Serbia, and involved a direct partnership with KK Partizan, one of the EuroLeague’s most iconic clubs, whose loyal supporters also feature in the film.
Charades to Launch Sales at the American Film Market
Charades plans to launch international sales for Import at the American Film Market next month. Pierre Mazars, co-founder of Charades, expressed strong enthusiasm for the project.
“Import offers a fresh perspective on a sport long shaped by U.S. dominance on basketball’s global image,” Mazars said. “In Serbia, basketball is more than a game — it’s a religion. Paul Shkordoff captures its singular and fierce atmosphere, bringing to the screen a powerful and universal story that reaches far beyond the boundaries of sport.”
Shkordoff described the film’s deeper themes as centering on the tension between professional ambition, physical limitation and personal identity. “Central to this film lies the harsh reality that in sports, the body can become aware of what the mind refuses to accept,” he said. “We use work as a conduit to meaning because it can feel like a shortcut to defining who we want to be. But when that work is no longer available to us, it can feel like the identity we’ve been building for ourselves no longer exists.”
A Director Building on Festival Recognition
Import marks Shkordoff’s first feature after a series of acclaimed short films. His 2020 short Benjamin, Benny, Ben competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Filmmaker Barry Jenkins also selected it for Telluride’s Calling Cards section. The film earned a nomination for best live-action short at the Canadian Screen Awards and won best Canadian short film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
His following short, Twelve Hours, had its world premiere at TIFF in 2021. Shkordoff then developed Import through TorinoFilmLab’s ScriptLab program in 2022.
Production Partners and Financing
Jason Aita at Sweet George Films, Emily Harris at OPC, and Rosalie Chicoine Perreault at Quebec-based Metafilms produce the film. Metafilms is Sylvain Corbeil’s production company, previously behind Mommy and Universal Language.
Jean-Christophe Reymond’s French company Kazak Productions, known for Titane, co-produces alongside Milan Stojanović’s Serbian outfit Sense Productions. Biscuit Filmworks and The Lift are also involved as co-producers. Financial support comes from Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, the CNC’s Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, the Île-de-France Region, SODEC and Ontario Creates.
