Bas Devos’ Here, which won a brace of awards at last month’s Berlinale, has been acquired for Japan, Singapore and the US.
Beijing-based sales agency Rediance has closed deals with Sunny Film for Japan and with Anticipate Pictures for Singapore, both of which will release the film theatrically. Both deals were closed just before Filmart.
Cinema Guild, which previously acquired Devos’ Ghost Tropic from Rediance, has taken North American rights to the new film and aims to release after its North American premiere at a festival later this year.
The Belgian drama played in Encounters at Berlin, where it won the section’s best film award as well as the Fipeseci prize.
Shot on 16mm, it tells a story of a Romanian construction worker, played by Stefan Gota (Ghost Tropic), who meets a Belgian-Chinese woman (Liyo Gong) working in a restaurant while preparing a doctorate on mosses, just before he is about to move back home from Brussels.
Following its world premiere at the Berlinale, Here will receive its Asian premiere at Hong Kong International Film Festival on March 31.
At Filmart, Rediance also has Qu Youjia’s She Sat There Like All Ordinary Ones, selected for HAF’s work-in-progress section, with Xie Meng as a producer. This drama about two high school seniors who become friends and then reject one another is due to be delivered this year.
