Monopole Pathe has picked up all Swiss rights for Austrian director Andrea Maria Dusl's feature debut Blue Moon which had its world premiere in the Locarno Festival international competition this weekend.

Starring Austrian stand-up comedian Josef Hader, leading Ukrainian actress Viktoria Malektorovich and German actor-director Detlev Buck, Blue Moon follows the odyssey of three disparate characters from Vienna to the Black Sea port of Odessa.

According to Blue Moon's sales agent Esther van Messel of First Hand Films, Monopole Pathe plans to release the film in Swiss cinemas this autumn. The Lotus Film production has already secured distribution in Austria (Filmladen) and Germany (Ventura Film) and will be screening at the Pusan International Film Festival in November. Van Messel also told Screendaily.com that she is in "concrete negotiations" on Blue Moon with Mikado Film for Italy and with Contact Film for the Netherlands.

Apart from Blue Moon, First Hand Films is handling another three world premieres at Locarno this year: Hanns Zischler's Kafka Goes To The Movies, Thomas Imbach's Happy Too and Paolo Santoni's Neapolitain Heart.

Van Messel is also handling sales for Markus Imhoof's 1980 film The Boat Is Full, which was screened as part of a Special Event at this year's festival, and Nino Jancuso's Escape To Paradise showing in the Appellations Suisse sidebar.