The Match Factory has picked up international distribution rights for Iranian filmmaker Amir Naderi’s new feature Cut which will have its world premiere as the opening film of Venice’s Horizons (Orizzonti) section on Sept 1.

Based on a screenplay by Naderi co-written by the acclaimed Japanese writer- director Shinji Aoyama and Yuichi Tazawa, Cut [pictured] tells the story of an obsessive young filmmaker who becomes a human punching bag to pay off the Yakuza loans that financed his films.

The Venice premiere will then be followed by the North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and its Asian premiere as a gala screening at the Busan Film Festival. Busan had supported the project, which is producer Tokyo Story’s first feature film production, through its Asian Cinema Fund (ACF) 2011 Postproduction Fund.

Meanwhile, shooting began yesterday on Christian Petzold’s new feature film Barbara which will be the fourth title to be handled internationally by The Match Factory after his The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit), Yella and Jerichow.

Petzold is working with his usual collaborators such as the Berlin-based production company Schramm Film, cinematographer Hans Fromm, editor Bettina Böhler, costume designer Anette Guther, and lead actress Nina Hoss who is now appearing here in her fifth Petzold film after Toter Mann, Wolfsburg, Yella and Jerichow.

The story, which has been written by Petzold and is set in a provincial backwater in former East Germany during summer 1980, also features Ronald Zehrfeld, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Mark Waschke, and Rainer Bock.

Barbara has received funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, BKM, the German Federal Film Board (FFA) and the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) and is being co-produced by public broadcaster ZDF. Petzold’s usual distributor Piffl Medien will release the film theatrically in Germany.

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