Sundance Award-Winner ‘Smoke Sauna Sisterhood’ Sells to Key Territories (EXCLUSIVE)

Anthony Elanga isn't the first player to be quizzed on a lack of minutes under Erik ten Hag and he certainly won't be the last.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales closed a raft of sales at a vibrant market during the Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX. “Subject,” directed by Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, got picked up by Sweden’s SVT, Denmark’s DR, Norway’s NRK, Norway’s VGTV, The Netherlands’ VPRO, Israel’s Yes Doc, and Madman for Australia and New Zealand. Dogwoof released the film early this month in the U.K. “Subject” is an examination of the relationship between nonfiction filmmakers and their subjects. It raises important ethical questions during a golden of age for documentaries, when docs are screened by millions of viewers. The film re-visits protagonists of some of the most viewed documentaries of today – “The Staircase,” “The Square,” “Hoop Dreams,” “The Wolfpack” and “Capturing the Friedmans.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Swiss sales agency Lightdox has acquired the international rights to feature documentary “On the Edge” by Nicolas Peduzzi, which just had its world premiere at Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX in the DOX:AWARD competition, and received a Special Mention from the jury, who said the film “gripped us, and took us on a journey through the labyrinth of a human mind.” The film centers on Jamal Abdel Kader, who is the only psychiatrist in a 400-bed state hospital on the outskirts of Paris. Dedicated to his patients, he does his utmost to soothe their pain, listen to their words, and protect them from their own demons. However, the public health service is doing badly. There isn’t enough time, the caregivers are under severe strain as the institution is understaffed and underfunded. Yet Jamal and his colleagues keep striving to fulfil their mission: to heal bodies and souls.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor GlobeScreen Auditoriums has taken French rights to “Blix Not Bombs,” a documentary about former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, who was given the task of looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in the period running up to the U.S.-led invasion of the country 20 years ago. The deal was closed by Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales, which is also an executive producer on the film. The film had its world premiere at Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX on Monday, the anniversary of the invasion. In the film, Czech-Swedish filmmaker Greta Stocklassa interviews the Swedish diplomatic, now 94 years old, about what happened in the months leading up to war. He describes his meetings with George W. Bush and Tony Blair, his frustration when Colin Powell gave his pivotal speech in the UN Security Council, and his feeling of emptiness when the U.S. started the invasion, despite his reports that his team had found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Mobile 101, a Nokia Story,” a series about the dramatic rise and fall of the Finnish phone company, has been acquired by Disney+ and Walter Presents in multiple territories. The series was produced by Finland’s Rabbit Films and is represented in international markets by the outfit. The six-part series, which sheds light on how a small Finnish company specializing in rubber boots became the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer at the turn of the 21st century, has been picked by Disney+ Italy, Netherlands and Belgium. Walter Presents, meanwhile, bought it for the UK & Ireland. RUV Iceland has also acquired season one of the series.

Jessica Kiang In a log-cabin sauna nestled in pretty woods by a lake, a setting straight off the top of a chocolate box, a group of women gather on and off through the changing seasons to sweat out their secrets and heal each other with heat, talk and arcane sauna-based rituals. It is a practise so specific to the Voro community of Estonia that it joins Cuba’s rum makers, Turkey’s coffee culture and suchlike on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List, a fact revealed at the end of Anna Hint’s lovely feature doc debut “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.” And it feels exactly right, given that the small, smoky, steamy miracle of this film is how it creates something so intangible, so lyrical, from the absolutely elemental: fire, wood, water and lots of naked female flesh.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Xavier Henry-Rashid’s London-based sales agency Film Republic has closed deals for multiple territories on “F*cking Bornholm,” a tart comedy of social discomfort. The film had its international premiere in the main competition section of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label award. In his review, Variety’s Guy Lodge commented that Polish writer-director Anna Kazejak‘s “precise, piquant film deserves wider festival exposure and discerning distributor interest.” It has now been acquired by Iceland’s Bio Paradis, Arsenal for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lithuania’s Garsas, Slovenia’s RTV, Israel’s Yes and Sweden’s Lucky Dogs. The international trailer has its debut below.

Tom Joyner, who was First AD on such notable titles as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, George Roy Hill’s Slapshot and Clint Eastwood’s Bronco Billy, died February 22 after a long battle with cancer and heart disease. He was 79.

Tara Karajica Cinephil has sold Valerie Kontakos’ documentary “Queen of the Deuce,” which charts the rise of Chelly Wilson, the queen of the porn industry in 1970s New York, to several key territories. The film premiered at Doc NYC and is now playing in the International Competition at the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival. Greece’s ERT, Canada’s Doc Channel, Switzerland’s Radio Télévision Suisse and Israel’s Channel 8 came on board at the funding stage. It has now been acquired by Spanish streamer FilmIn, Swedish broadcaster UR, and U.S. theatrical distributor Greenwich Entertainment. The film follows Wilson from pre-World War II Greece to New York, where she rose to become a major figure on the porn circuit in Times Square from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. She is shown to be a trailblazing, taboo-breaking entrepreneur and an unconventional matriarch. It is presented as an empowering story of survival, as well as an alternative take on cultural history at a time of the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and the emergence of the gay liberation movement.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The first image has been unveiled from Miguel Gomes’ upcoming late 1910s drama “Grand Tour,” which is being sold by The Match Factory. The film is currently shooting in Italy, and stars Gonçalo Waddington and Crista Alfaiate. “Grand Tour” comes after the successful international sales and distribution of Gomes’ critically acclaimed features “Tabu,” “Arabian Nights” and “The Tsugua Diaries” – all titles sold by The Match Factory. “Grand Tour” kicks off in Rangoon, Burma, 1917. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, runs away from his fiancée Molly the day she arrives to get married. During his travels, however, panic gives way to melancholy. Contemplating the emptiness of his existence, the cowardly Edward wonders what has become of Molly… Yet Molly, determined to get married and amused by his move, follows his trail on this Asian grand tour.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “32 Sounds,” an immersive and experiential documentary, has sold North American rights to Abramorama following its premiere at Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which explores the phenomenon of sound through 32 specific sonic experiences, will begin its nationwide theatrical rollout at New York City’s Film Forum on April 28. To complete the unique auditory experience, several venues, including Film Forum, will offer audience members individual sets of headphones so they can watch “32 Sounds” the way the filmmaker intended. “32 Sounds” had its world premiere at Sundance, where it played to positive reviews. Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge wrote that the movie is “bursting with humor, emotion and curiosity” and praised it as a “rare and rewarding sonic journey with the potential to enrich our lives.”

Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have set Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama and Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s Sundance Special Jury Award winner Mutt, both debut features, as opening and closing film at the 52st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films, running March 29–April 9 in NYC.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Celebrated actor Nigel Havers and French journalist Sophie Davant will join Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) and ZDF Studios to celebrate 10 years and a now 10 territory roll-out of antique auction show “Cash or Trash.”  The property is produced by WBITVP and distributed internationally by ZDF Studios. Celebrations will take place as part of WBITVP’s Formats Showcase, held March 2 at BAFTA during this year’s London TV Screenings.  Havers (“Chariots of Fire,” “Finding Alice”) and Davant host the adaptations of “Cash or Trash,” on BBC One (“The Bidding Room”) and French public TV channel France 2 (“Affair Conclue”).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor U.S. film financier Grandave Capital will invest in the documentary “Romano Artioli – The Last Great Dreamer,” about the one-time owner of the Bugatti and Lotus automobile brands, Romano Artioli. In 1952, Artioli, a 20-year-old technician in Italy watched in astonishment as Bugatti ceased production in Molsheim, France. Artioli studied mechanical engineering and went on to repair cars, before eventually setting up an automotive retail and import business. By the mid-1980s, this business became so successful that Artioli was able to begin discussions with the French government about buying the Bugatti brand. In 1987, his dream became a reality.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Jennifer Nettles has joined the cast of “The Exorcist,” the first film in the new horror trilogy. Details of her part haven’t been revealed, but it’s described as a “primary role.” She joins a cast that includes Leslie Odom Jr., Ann Dowd, Lidya Jewett and Ellen Burstyn, who is reprising her role as Chris MacNeil from the 1973 original. The new take on the possession story is being produced by Blumhouse and Morgan Creek for Universal and Peacock. The first film in the trilogy will be released theatrically on Oct. 13, 2023. Nettles is known for both her acting and her music. She most recently played Jenna Hunterson in the Broadway musical “Waitress.” Nettles also appears on HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” and had a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated Harriet Tubman biopic, “Harriet.” She is a judge on TBS’ competition series “Go-Big Show” and will host Fox’s “The Farmer Wants a Wife.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlinale competition film “Music” opens with gray clouds racing across the face of a Greek mountain as a storm prepares to break. It is a suitably dramatic prelude to the tumultuous events that will unfold, albeit rendered in an understated manner by German director Angela Schanelec, who won the Berlinale best director award in 2019 for “I Was at Home, But.” As the storm lifts, an abandoned baby boy is rescued a paramedic, who names him Jon. Years later, Jon, now a young man, kills another man, accidentally, and ends up in prison. Here, he is tended to by a female guard, Iro, as his eyesight begins to deteriorate. When he is released, the two get married and have a child. But several years later, his wife discovers a terrible secret.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outlet New Europe Film Sales has sold North American distribution rights for its Berlinale-selected drama “Delegation” to Greenwich Entertainment. “Delegation” is a story of three Israeli high school friends who take part in a class trip visiting Holocaust sites in Poland – their last time together before going to the army. During the trip, shy boy Frisch, aspiring artist Nitzan and class heartthrob Ido deal with issues of love, friendship and politics against the backdrop of concentration camps and memorial sites. The journey will change them forever. The deal for the film, which had its premiere in the Generation 14Plus competition, was negotiated by Naszewski and Greenwich co-president Edward Arentz.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Arbelos, a Los Angeles-based boutique film distribution company, has acquired North American rights to the new 4K restoration of Béla Tarr collaborator György Fehér’s landmark but long unseen Hungarian masterpiece “Twilight” (“Szürkület”). The restored version of the film world premiered in the Berlinale’s Classics strand on Monday. Hungary’s National Film Institute handled the sale. Fehér, who made only two theatrical features, shot the black-and-white film at the end of the 1980s. Based on the crime novella “The Pledge” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, it is the story of a retired detective who uses a girl as bait to try to catch a serial killer.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Lie With Me,” a romance drama headlined by French stars Guillaume de Tonquebec and Victor Belmondo, has lured a raft of theatrical distributors at the Berlinale’s EFM. Represented in international markets by Be For Films and directed by Olivier Peyon, the movie is based on Philippe Besson’s book “Arrête avec tes mensonges.” The autobiographical novel was originally published in France by Editions Julliard in 2017 and won pair of awards including the Maison de la Presse prize in 2017. After selling several key territories earlier this year, Be For Films has now closed deals for the U.S. (Cinephobia Realising), Germany/Austria (24 Bilder), Brazil (Imovision), Poland (Tongariro), Greece (Cinobo) and Turkey (Bir Films).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Delegation,” a coming-of-age film about an Israeli school trip to Holocaust memorial sites in Poland, has debuted its trailer (below). Israeli writer-director Asaf Saban’s film world premiered at Berlinale Sunday in the Generation 14plus section. Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales is handling international sales. In the film, three Israeli high-school friends take part in a class trip visiting Holocaust sites in Poland – their last time together before going to the army. During the trip, shy boy Frisch, aspiring artist Nitzan and class heartthrob Ido deal with issues of love, friendship and politics against the backdrop of concentration camps and memorial sites. This journey will change them forever.