Philippe Bober’s Coproduction Office has reported bumper Cannes sales on its Cannes competition title Paradise: Love directed by maverick Austrian Ulrich Seidl.
The film is the first part of a trilogy and most buyers have taken all three features.
Deals now confirmed for the three films include: France (Happiness), Belgium (Lumière), Netherlands (Eye), Germany (Neue Visionen), Italy (Archibald), Austria (Stadtkino), Norway (As Fidalgo), Denmark (Ost For Paradis), Sweden (Triart), Greece (Feelgood), Poland (Against Gravity), Russia (Maywin), Baltics (Maywin) and South Korea (World Cinema).
Meanwhile, Hong Kong (Edko) and Israel (Orlando) have taken the first film.
Coproduction Office also claims to be in negotiation with the US and to have had interest and offers from, among others, the UK, Switzerland, Canada and Latin America.
The first film, Paradise: Love, which screened in Cannes, explores the phenomenon of “sugar mothers” – middle-aged European women to whom young black men in Kenya offer sex to earn money.
The second film, Paradise: Faith, is a portrait of Anna Maria, a woman with a religious obsession who spends her vacation carrying a statue of the Mother of God from door to door. It’s likely to surface at an early autumn festival.
The third film, Paradise: Hope, billed as a movie about “the unconditionality of first love,” tells the story of the 13-year-old Melanie who falls in love with a doctor 40 years her senior – and sets out to seduce him. It should be ready for Berlin.
The trilogy has been produced by Ulrich Seidl Film (AT) in co-production with Tat Film (GER) and Société Parisienne (FRA) and in collaboration with ORF (Film/Fernseh-Abkommen), WDR/ARTE, Degeto, ARTE France and the support of Filminstitut, Filmfonds Wien, Land Niederösterreich, Eurimages and Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC).
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