America's Olive Films tempted by St Tony

by Annika Pham

13/02/2010 - The new Scandinavian sales outfit LevelK has just sold US and Canadian rights for Veiko Õunpuu’s Estonian film The Temptation of St. Tony [trailer] to Olive Films.

The Temptation received positive reviews following its competition screenings both in Sundance and in Rotterdam and as the closing film of the Göteborg International Film Festival. The European co-production between Homeless Bob Production (Estonia), Bronson Club (Finland) and Atmo (Sweden) follows a middle-aged, mid-level manager (Taavi Eelmaa) trying to tackle a heap of emotional problems.

“Masterfully shot and edited, Öunpuu’s film is a marvelous cinematic expression of the Kafkaesque story of good and evil, without the temptation to rigidly define ‘good’ and ‘evil’,” said Olive Films Managing Director Farhad Arshad, who negotiated the deal with LevelK’s CEO Tine Klint. Õunpuu is one of the most talented filmmakers in Estonia. His directorial debut Autumn Ball [trailer] won the Horizons Award at Venice 2007.

LevelK is also premiering at the European Film Market Gunnar Vikene’s Norwegian film Vegas [trailer], winner of a Best Film Award for a Younger Audience at the last Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn. The film stars Anders Baasmo Christiansen, one of this year’s Shooting Stars at the Berlinale.

Also in LevelK’s catalogue is the Danish children’s film Storm by Giacomo Campeotto (The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar [trailer]).