EXCLUSIVE: Company acquires world rights to Bill Siegel’s The Trials of Mohammad Ali [pictured].

Austrian doc sales specialists Autlook have been on the prowl for new acquisitions.

On the eve of Cannes, Autlook has taken on world rights to Bill Siegel’s Tribeca entry The Trials of Muhammad Ali. The film, exec produced by Leon Gast (When We Were Kings) was made through Kartemquin Films.

It chronicles the boxing superstar’s religious and political awakening, exploring the circumstances behind the bitter legal battle Ali faced with the US Government when he refused to serve in the Vietnam War. (This period in Ali’s life is also covered in fictional form in Stephen Frears’ Cannes entry, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, made for HBO.)

Alongside the Ali film, Autlook has also recently nabbed the macabre new feature doc Profilers - Gaze Into The Abyss. Directed by Barbara Eder, the doc portrays those specialists whose daily job is to peer into the minds of serial killers, terrorists and rapists. 

While fictional stories of criminal profilers fascinate mass audiences, their professional reality entails an enormous psychological burden. The film portrays top profilers from the USA, Finland, South Africa and Germany, looking at their daily routine and the challenge they face in living a “normal” life. How - the doc asks - can these profilers enjoy life, when they deal with the worst excesses of human beings day after day.

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