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CANNES 2006 Market / Germany

Kaurismäki continues to sell for The Match Factory

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Before of its official screening in competition tomorrow afternoon, Aki Kaurismäki’s highly anticipated Lights in the Dusk [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
has been snapped by Spain ( Golem), Poland (Kino Świat), Hungary (Budapest Film), Greece ( Rosebud), and Russia (Intercinema), in addition to a dozen other territories – including the UK (Artificial Eye), Sweden (Folkets Bio ) and Denmark (Husets Biograf) – that had already secured domestic rights to the film, alongside co-producers Pandora (Germany), Bim (Italy) and Pyramide (France).

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The Match Factory’s Managing Director Michael Weber, who previously worked on Kaurismäki’s The Man Without a Past [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
for his former employer, Bavaria Film International, is ecstatic over international buyers’ response the last instalment of Kaurismäki’s trilogy, and to his company’s line-up as a whole.

“Although this is our company’s first Cannes, people come to see us because we have a wide range of quality films, as well as personal relationships with buyers”, stressed Weber. “And after our tremendously successful Berlin [where the company’s Grbavica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
interview: Jasmila Zbanic
film profile
]
by Jasmila Žbanic won the Golden Bear], people take us seriously. “

Closely associated to German production house Pandora Film, at Cannes the Match Factory is also selling Pandora co-production You Am I by Lithuanian director Kristijonas Vilziunas, screening on May 24 in Un Certain Regard. “The title’s selection is a chance for people to see a film from a Baltic country and to give it a higher profile”, Weber told Cineuropa. “Plus, we liked the film and it is part of our strategy to support both established and new talent.”

At the market, Weber wants to finish up sales on Grbavica, in particular to Latin America and Asia as most European territories are gone (except the UK), as well as on Eden, the Rotterdam Tiscali Audience Award winner by Michael Hofmann, which was already snapped up by Cinemien for Benelux and by Hidalgo for Norway, among others.

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