Korean sales agent CineclickAsia has picked up worldwide sales rights to Opium War, the second film from Afghan director Siddiq Barmakfollowing Osama which won aGolden Globe for best foreign-language film in 2004.

The deal marks the firsttime that Cineclick has handled a non-Korean feature. The Seoul-based company willalso co-finance and co-produce the film along with Japan's Happinet Corp.

The project recentlyparticipated in the PPP co-production market at the Pusan International FilmFestival where it received the $10,000 Cineclick Asia award. Newly established this year, theaward included a first-look option for investment and overseas distributionwith Cineclick.

Scheduled to start shootingnext February for delivery in October, the film tells the story of two Americansoldiers - one a white officer and the other a black soldier -whose helicopter crashes down in the middle of the Afghanistan desert. Woundedand exhausted, they stumble across a Russian tank which has a group of Afghanistanpeople living inside.

Happinet and Cineclick willkeep Japanese and Korean rights respectively. The Japanese company hasco-financed several Cineclick titles including 3-iron and The Bow, both directed by Kim Ki-duk.