LA-based sales and distribution outfit Menemsha Entertainment has picked up North American rights to the Czech-Slovak co-production The Power Of Good - Nicholas Winton at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this week.

Matej Minac's The Power Of Good is a documentary about an Englishman who saved 669 Jewish children from a death transport in 1939. Nicholas Winton himself, now 93, flew into Karlovy Vary from England last night (July 10) for the film's screening.

The acquisition follows Meneshma's purchase of worldwide rights to Vladimir Michalek's light-hearted Czech feature about growing old, Autumn Spring (Babi Leto), in May. Meneshma's Neil Friedman says after a packed screening at Cannes, he inked deals that will see Autumn Spring into cinemas in Australia, Finland, Greece, Israel and Norway.

Friedman says he picked up each of the films for an unspecified "low-to-medium" advance. Menemsha is also the sales agent for Jan Hoebejk's 2000 Oscar nominee Divided We Fall.

Menemsha will distribute The Power Of Good itself, Friedman says, but he hopes to re-sell Autumn Spring to a US distributor. "I don't know if I'm going to sell it," Friedman says. "If I don't, I'm going to distribute it myself."

Friedman says the main hurdle in winning over US audiences is lack of recognition of Autumn Spring's main star, Czech screen legend Vlastimil Brodsky. "If people knew Brodsky, it would be a slam dunk," he says.