Paris- and Berlin-based sales and production house Salaud Morisset has sold Palestinian-Danish director Mahdi Fleifel’s Palestinian refugee drama “To a Land Unknown,” which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, to 40 territories. The film is released in the U.K. and Ireland on Friday.
Salaud Morisset has signed new deals with Imovision (Brazil), Vertigo Media (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia), Joint Entertainment (Taiwan), Real Fiction (Germany), Five Stars (Ex Yugoslavia), Filmtrade (Greece), Filmladen (Austria), Filmin (Spain), Portugal (The Stone & The Plot) and Falcon Pictures (Indonesia).
Previously announced deals include Conic (U.K.), Wildcard (Ireland), Eurozoom (France), Watermelon Pictures (U.S., Canada) and Film Clinic (Arab territories).
“To a Land Unknown” screened at more than 100 festivals including San Sebastian, Toronto, London, Thessaloniki, New Horizons and Sarajevo, and won more than 20 awards.
The film tells the story of the desperate attempts of two Palestinian cousins stranded in Athens to find a way to reach Germany. Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. When Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.
“To a Land Unknown” is produced by Geoff Arbourne at Inside Out Films, Fleifel’s Nakba FilmWorks, Salaud Morisset, Maria Drandaki at Homemade Films, and Layla Meijman and Maarten van der Ven at Studio Ruba.
