Media Luna Entertainment has picked up world sales rights for Romanian first time director Calin Netzer's Maria which will receive its world premiere in Locarno Film Festival's Official Competition next Wednesday (August 13).

Maria is a co-production by Artis Film Romania with France's Cine-Manufacture and Germany's Pandora Filmproduktion, which will be screening in the Regional Programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival a week after Locarno.

It centres on Maria and Ione, two people living on the margins of society, who once loved each other and then found themselves in the gutter, with Ione falling prey to brutality and alcohol and Maria taking to prostitution.

Maria is the Pandora's third co-production in competition at Locarno this year along with Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter'And Spring, Martin Rejtman's The Magic Gloves (Los Guantes Magicos) and Dominique de Rivaz's Jagged Harmonies - Bach vs Frederick II.