Germany's Beta Cinema, Media Luna New Films take on Berlin titles

Beta Cinema has acquired international and German rights to the bittersweet lovestory Au Revoir Taipei, which will premiere in the Forum on February 14.

Executive produced by Wim Wenders, the feature debut by American-Taiwanese director Arvin Chen was produced by In-Ah Lee of Cologne/LA-based Greensky Films with Atom Cinema and distributor Cathay-Keris Films, who will release the film in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Starring popular Taiwanese pop singer Amber Kuo (pictured), Lawrence Ko and show star-singer Frankie Gao, Au Revoir Taipei tells the story of a lovesick young man who yearns to go to Paris, but, in the course of his last night in the city, realises that the excitement and romance he was longing for is already there. The film’s Asian premiere will be held at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in March.

Meanwhile, Ida Martins’ Cologne-based Media Luna New Films has picked up Hong Kong film-maker Scud’s Amphetamine, which will have its world premiere in the Panorama on February 15.

Amphetamine is the second part of Scudo’s semi-autobiographical trilogy, which began with 2009’s Permanent Residence. Both titles focus on the fatal, addictive love between two men despite their differences in sexuality.

Media Luna New Films will also be having market premieres at the European Film Market of four other new titles:

• US independent filmmaker Stuart Culpepper’s third feature, the suspense thriller Jordan;
• Oliver Torr, Ross Wilson and Matt Zeremes’ psychological thriller Strangers Lovers Killers, set in Shanghai and Sydney,
• Dutch filmmaker Mark de Cloe’s love story Life In One Day, which screened at last year’s Rome Film Festival;
• Betty Park’s documentary Mamachas Del Ring about Carmen Rosa, about a women struggling to make it on her own in the male-dominated world of Bolivian professional wrestling. The film is screening this month at the Slamdance Film Festival in the US.