Celluloid Dreams' everexpanding English-language slate continues to swell. Yesterday at the AFM,Celluloid confirmed it is to handle international sales on Mrs Ratcliffe'sRevolution, the bittersweet newBritish comedy from Leslee Udwin's Assassin Films.

Bille Eltringham (This IsNot A Love Song, The Long Firm) willdirect from a screenplay by Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor. Paul Abbottis executive producer. Shooting on the $9.5 million project begins in early2006, with delivery due later that autumn. The cast is headed by CatherineTate, Mark Strong and Heike Makatsch. The film will be distributed by WarnerBrothers in the UK, Spain and Scandinavia.

The film is based on thetrue story of an keen Marxist from the north of England who drags his familywith him to live in East Berlin in the mid-1960s. Frank Ratcliffe realizes thatlife in the communist bloc is not the idyll he had imagined. His wife of 17 years,Dorothy Ratcliffe, is thrown by life behind the Iron Curtain, but battles tokeep the family together.

"She leaves the worldof Marks & Spencer and goes to the world of Marx and Lenin," is howUdwin has characterized Mrs Ratcliffe's journey.

Udwin has been pushing theproject for some time. At one point, Francesca Jospeh was attached to direct. MrsRatcliffe will film in the UK andHungary, doubling for East Germany.

"Mrs Ratcliffe'sRevolution simply made me laugh outloud when I read it and I m thrilled to be on board this film with Leslee whomI have admired since East is East," Celluloid Dreams' Hengameh Panahicommented.

- Celluloid Dreams is also tohandle international sales for Oskar Roehler's adaptation of controversialFrench author Michel Houellebecq's best-selling novel Atomised (Elementarteilchen) which is currently in postproduction and maypremiere at next year's Berlinale.

The co-production betweenConstantin Film and MOOVIE - the art of entertainment - is the first ofConstantin's local in-house productions to be handled by a sales companyoutside of Germany. Until now, the international distribution of its Germanproductions was taken on by such companies as BetaFilm or Atlas InternationalFilm.

Atomised, which follows two half-brothers, played by MoritzBleibtreu and Christian Ulmen, through the second half of the 20th century asthey struggle to come to terms with the malaise of modern existence and love,also stars Franka Potente, Nina Hoss (The White Massai) and Martina Gedeck (Mostly Martha).

(Martin Blaneycontributed to this report)