Palm Pictureshas acquired US and Caribbean rights to Olivier Assayas' drug addiction drama Cleanstarring Maggie Cheung.

Palm, whichdistributed Assayas' Demonlover last year, plans an autumn 2005 US release with DVD to follow in2006.

TVA Films holds Canadian rights and released the picture in Quebec in October, with select cities in English-speaking Canada to follow in early 2005.

Set in Canada, Paris andLondon, the story centres on a woman's fight to overcome drug addiction and wincustody of her son following the death by overdose of her rock star husband.

The picturepremiered at Cannes earlier this year and earned Cheung the best actress award.Nick Nolte, Martha Henry, James Dennis and Beatrice Dalle also star.

Palm's head ofacquisitions & production David Koh negotiated the deal with Joy Wong ofThe Works representing the producers Edouard Weil, Niv Fichman, and XavierMarchand.

"We are big fansof Olivier Assayas' work and look forward to bringing his latest film to awider audience in the US," Koh said in a statement.

"This is a very sensitiveand emotional story about an individual's struggle that stays with you for along time."

"We are thrilledto be working with Palm Pictures for the release of this beautiful and movingstory," Wong added. "We are impressed with Palm's growing reputation as adistributor of high-quality films from around the world and Olivier is lookingforward to working with them again."

Olivier Assayas' creditsinclude Irma Vep, Late August, Early September, and Demonlover.