BFI Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to Aleem Khan’s After Love from Paris-based The Bureau Sales.
The UK drama will receive its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) next month after previously being selected for Cannes Critics’ Week and Telluride Film Festival – both of which were cancelled due to the pandemic. It also received an industry screening at Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.
BFI Distribution is planning a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland in spring 2021.
The film stars Joanna Scanlan as a Muslim woman who becomes a widow following the unexpected death of her husband. A day after the burial, she learns he had a secret life not far from their Dover home, across the Channel in Calais, where she travels and makes a surprising discovery. The cast also includes French actor Nathalie Richard and newcomer Talid Ariss.
It marks the feature debut of UK writer-director Khan, who was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2015 and is one of three shortlisted LFF filmmakers in the running for this year’s BFI and IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award.
Khan’s debut short, Diana, premiered at the BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in 2009. His subsequent short, Three Brothers, screened at the LFF in 2014 and received a Bafta nomination.
After Love is produced by Matthieu de Braconier for The Bureau, co-producers are Gabrielle Dumon and Gerardine O’Flynn and the executive producers are Natascha Wharton for the BFI, Eva Yates for BBC Films and Vincent Gadelle for The Bureau.
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