Iranian Genre Crossover Film ‘Without Her’ Acquired By Picture Tree Intl., Debuts Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

Anna Marie de la Fuente Top Argentine sales and production company, FilmSharks Int’l, has picked up worldwide sales rights to Matias Lucchesi’s latest film “The Broken Land” (“Las Rojas”) ahead of its debut at the European Film Market (EFM).This will be the second time for a Lucchesi film to be present in Berlin. Lucchesi snagged the best feature prize at the Berlinale Generation Kplus sidebar with his feature debut, “Natural Sciences,” in 2014.Shot mainly in the majestic Cordillera de las Andes of Mendoza, Argentina, “The Broken Land” can be described as a thriller with Western undertones, highlighted by the soulful music of composer Hernan Segret.Drama centers on two female paleontologists, played by Argentina’s Mercedes Moran (“La Cienaga”) and Uruguay’s Natalia Oreiro (“The Unseen”), who are at loggerheads from the moment they meet. Oreiro’s character, Constanza, has come to the protected national reserve where Moran’s equally strong-willed character, Carlota, has been toiling for years.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe trailer for Gu∂mundur Arnar Gu∂mundsson’s teen drama “Beautiful Beings” has debuted ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday. The film, which plays in Panorama, is being sold by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.

Christopher Vourlias Two-time Berlinale prize winner Małgorzata Szumowska (“Body,” “Mug”) will write and direct “The Gambler Wife,” a revelatory portrait of novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s wife Anna Snitkina, to be produced by Russia’s Hype Film, Variety can reveal.Adapted from Andrew D. Kaufman’s book “The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky,” the film tells the story of the courageous woman who saved the life of the Russian literary icon and, as the first Russian woman to found her own publishing house, became a pioneer in the country’s literary history.Ilya Stewart of Hype Film (“Petrov’s Flu,” “Persian Lessons”) will produce in collaboration with Polish production company Nowhere.

Holly Jones In anticipation of its world premiere at the Berlinale, Latido Films, which is handling international distribution, has provided Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s debut feature, “Lullaby.”The film, which takes an earnest glimpse into the fraught dynamics of cross-generational caregiving, will be included as part of the Panorama strand at the fest, which lends a platform to projects covering societal taboos and topics not oft-breached by commercial cinema.In “Lullaby,” an exhausted Amaia (Laia Costa) is tasked with seeking comfort and aid from her aging parents as her husband, Javi (Mikel Bustamante), follows his career out of town after the birth of their child. A wide range of emotions are displayed as Amaia learns to understand and engage with her mother, Begoñia (Susi Sanchez), while forging her way towards independence. “We never talk about motherhood as a crisis.

Naman Ramachandran Zhang Lu’s “Yanagawa” (China), Hong Sung-eun’s “Aloners” (South Korea) and Fujimoto Akio’s “Along the Sea” (Japan/Vietnam) were among the top award winners at France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas. “Yanagawa,” which opened the 2021 Pingyao Film Festival, won the Golden Cyclo, the festival’s top honor awarded by the international jury.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorDark comedy-drama “Concerned Citizen,” which has its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlinale, has debuted its trailer. Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal will be selling the film during the European Film Market. The film, a satirical parable on the insidious ways in which privilege can unleash the prejudice within, centers on Ben, who thinks of himself as a liberal and enlightened gay man, living in the perfect apartment with his boyfriend Raz.

Naman Ramachandran Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Iranian auteur who is a leading voice in art house film, says independent cinema is dying in the era of streaming video. Makhmalbaf, director of Cannes prize winner “Kandahar,” Sitges and Tokyo winner “Gabbeh” and Venice winner “The Silence,” says that while streaming presents an opportunity to show a film to many people, it also “destroys other kinds of medium.” “You can eat your food in your room, but why do you go to a restaurant to eat with others?,” asks Makhmalbaf.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“1341 Frames of Love and War,” which world premieres in the Berlinale Special section of the Berlin Film Festival, has debuted its trailer with Variety. World sales are being handled by Reservoir Docs, excluding North America, Israel, Greece and Portugal, which are being sold by the filmmakers.The film is a documentary portrait of one of the world’s leading war photographers, Israel’s Micha Bar-Am.

< 1 min read The nation of Iran has reportedly executed two men following six years of imprisonment after they were convicted under Iran’s anti-gay laws. According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), Mehrdad Karimpour and Farid Mohammadi are said to have been executed in the Maragheh prison in northwestern Iran following their arrests over six years ago.

Carlos Saldanha, director of “Ice Age” and “Rio” franchise movies and creator of Netflix series “Invisible City,” is joining forces with Brazil’s outfit Ventre Studio and Warner Bros. Pictures to co-create and direct superhero feature project “Iemanjá – Ocean’s Goddess.”“Iemanjá” is planned as the first movie in a series that transports the Brazil’s Candomblé gods to a superhero universe, being a pioneering Brazilian production of this genre.Following a crucial theme in Brazilian culture, “Iemanjá – Ocean’s Goddess” will tell the story of Iemanjá, an Orixá or goddess adored by the Brazilian people and also known as the Queen of the Sea.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has added to its European Film Market slate “Love Thing,” starring top German actor Elyas M’Barek, whose credits include “The Collini Case.” Also on the slate is “Soul of a Beast,” which debuts its trailer below.Despite the virtual nature of the EFM, the company has taken additional office space at the Marriott Hotel in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.“Love Thing,” which also stars Lucie Heinze, Peri Baumeister and Alexandra Maria Lara, is directed and written by Anika Decker, whose last feature “High Society” sold widely.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Working Class Heroes,” by director Miloš Pušić, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand. Variety has also been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer.Starring award-winning Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić, who played the lead role in Jasmila Žbanić’s Oscar-nominated “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” “Working Class Heroes” follows a cold-hearted businesswoman working for a construction investor of dubious morals.