Diaphana acquires Brick Lane

by Annika Pham

04/10/2006 - Sarah Gavron’s feature debut Brick Lane, produced by Alison Owen (Sylvia [trailer], Elizabeth) and Chris Collins (My Summer of Love [trailer, film focus]), has just been pre-sold by The Works to Diaphana Distribution in France.

The film, which just finished its UK shoot and will soon move to India, is an adaptation of Monica Ali's acclaimed eponymous novel describing the life of a Bangladeshi immigrant girl who arrives in 1980s London for an arranged marriage and a new life. The universal story about life, love, and cultural differences is the first feature by rising filmmaker Gavron, praised for her 2003 TV drama This Little Life.

The film stars Tannishta Chatterjee (Shadows of Time), well-known Bollywood actor Satish Kausnik and Christopher Simpson (Code 46 [trailer]).

Produced by Ruby Films for Film Four with support from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, Brick Lane will be ready next spring. Optimum Releasing will release it in the UK and The Works will continue pre-selling it at the American Film Market (AFM) in early November.

At the AFM, the Works will screen the Icelandic film Children [trailer] by Ragnar Bragason (Iceland’s official entry for the 2007 Oscars shortlist), Shane Meadows' This is England [trailer] and Roger Michell’s Venus.

Also on the company’s line-up are Scenes of a Sexual Nature by Ed Blum, the Norwegian/UK animated film Free Jimmy [trailer] by Christopher Nielsen, Italian film La Terra by Sergio Rubini, Oliver Parker’s new film I Really Hate My Job, currently in post-production, and John Pilger’s documentary The War on Democracy, still in production.