Charades Boards Basketball Drama ‘Import’ From Cannes Alum Paul Shkordoff Ahead of AFM (EXCLUSIVE)

Charades (“Club Kid”) has boarded “Import,” the debut feature film of Canadian director Paul Shkordoff, whose 2020 short “Benjamin, Benny, Ben” competed at Cannes.

Set in the fiercely competitive world of European basketball, the movie was co-written by Frank Graziano (“Murina”) and Shkordoff. It’s now in post-production.

American professional basketball player Jawaun Daniels, who has played for clubs across Europe, stars alongside Alexis Manenti (‘Les Misérables’) and Mouna Soualem (‘The Little Sister’).

Shot in Belgrade, Serbia, “Import” follows Danny Ingram, a former high-school basketball prospect whose dreams of a professional career are derailed by a serious injury. Determined to get a second chance, he heads to Eastern Europe, where he struggles to break into the competitive basketball and gets turned away by recruiters. Desperate to keep playing, Danny conceals his injury and crosses paths with Nima, a Syrian nurse caring for the local migrant community, who offers him a much-needed job. When an opportunity to play for Partizan finally emerges, Danny must decide how far he is willing to go to pursue his basketball dreams.

Charades will launch international sales at the American Film Market next month.

“’Import’ offers a fresh perspective on a sport long shaped by the U.S. dominance on basketball’s global image. In Serbia, basketball is more than a game — it’s a religion,“ said Charades co-founder Pierre Mazars. “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, meanwhile, said the film explores the relationship between professional ambition, physical limitations 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. 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.”

The film was made in partnership with KK Partizan, one of the EuroLeague’s most iconic basketball clubs/ The team, which is featured in the film, is renowned for its loyal supporters.

“Import” marks Shkordoff’s feature directorial debut following a string of acclaimed shorts. His 2020 film “Benjamin, Benny, Ben” was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was programmed by Barry Jenkins as part of Telluride’s Calling Cards section. It was also nominated for best live-action short at the Canadian Screen Awards and won best Canadian short film at Toronto. His next short, “Twelve Hours,” had its world premiere at TIFF in 2021. Shkordoff developed “Import” through TorinoFilmLab’s ScriptLab program in 2022.

The film also marks a collaboration with Graziano, who co-wrote Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović’s “Murina,” winner of the Caméra d’Or in 2021.

“Import” is produced by Jason Aita at Sweet George Films, Emily Harris at OPC and Rosalie Chicoine Perreault at Quebec-based Metafilms, Sylvain Corbeil’s production company behind “Mommy” and “Universal Language.”

The movie is co-produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond’s French banner Kazak Productions (“Titane”) and Milan Stojanović’s Serbian outfit Sense Productions, in association with Biscuit Filmworks and The Lift, with the participation of Telefilm Canada and the support of Eurimages, the CNC’s Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, the Île-de-France Region, SODEC and Ontario Creates.