EXCLUSIVE: Icon Film Distribution has taken UK and Ireland rights to Teodora Ana Mihai’s Heysel 85 from French outfit Salaud Morisset.
The film is a political thriller telling the inside story of the Heysel Stadium disaster, which led to the deaths of 39 football supporters at the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool Football Club and Juventus in Brussels.
What made the tragedy all the more grim is that events were broadcast on live TV to an estimated audience of 400 million viewers. Even after the deaths, many of which happened before kick-off, the match went ahead.
Heysel 85 had its world premiere as a Special Gala screening at last month’s Berlinale.
Salaud Morisset has confirmed further deals to Portugal (Films4You), the Baltics (Latvian Theatrical Distribution), Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia (Cinestar), and Uruguay (Cinematica Uruguaya). These follow on from deals sealed after the Berlin premiere, among them to Plaion Pictures for Italy and Smile Entertainment for the Nordic region.
Salaud Morisset said it is in negotiations with Japanese and South Korean buyers for the film and is hoping to spark further interest from other Asian distributors at this week’s Filmart in Hong Kong.
Heysel 85 focuses on the events from the point of view of Marie (Violet Braeckman), press attaché of the mayor of Brussels, and Luca (Matteo Simoni), a young journalist covering the match for the Italian media.
“Through them, the tragedy unfolds not as a historical reconstruction, but as a lived, moment-by-moment experience,” Mihai commented.
Most of the drama takes place underneath the stadium where bodies are being brought and politicians and bureaucrats are desperately trying to respond to the ongoing catastrophe. Mihai also looks at the causes and human cost of the disaster, where poor ticketing arrangements left Italian fans right next to their English rivals.
Heysel 85 was produced by Hans Everaert at Antwerp-based Menuetto. Co-producers are Topkapi Films (Netherlands) , Leitwolf Film (Germany) and Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium).
Kinepolis will release the film in Belgium later this year.
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