Mubi has acquired key territories on Lukas Dhont’s Coward ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival this month.
The distributor has taken all rights for UK-Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Latin America, and Australia-New Zealand. The film is sold by The Match Factory, which Mubi owns.
Lumiere will distribute the film in Benelux with Diaphana Distribution distributing in France.
Set during the First World War, Coward follows a soldier newly arrived at the front and eager to prove himself. He meets a fellow soldier who tries to life the spirits of his comrades by putting together a theatre show; as the violence continues, both men try to find ways to escape the brutality of war, even if only for a moment.
The film reunites Dhont with previous collaborators, including co-writer Angelo Tijssens and producer Michiel Dhont.
The film is produced by Reunion, Lumen, Topkapi Films & Versus (Opus), in co-production with France 2 Cinema, VTM, RTBF, Proximus, BeTV & Orange. It was made in association with The Common Humanity Art Trust and Portobello Productions.
Backers include the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) of the Flemish Government, the Screen Flanders economic fund, Screen Brussels, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB), Wallimage, Cine+ OCS, CNC, Pictanovo Hauts-de-France, Sacem, the Netherlands Film Fund, the Netherlands Film Production Incentive and Eurimages, and the participation of France Televisions.
Coward marks Dhont’s third appearance in official selection at the festival with his third feature, after Girl started in Un Certain Regard and won the Camera d’Or for best debut film, and Close played in Competition in 2022, with Mubi later distributing that title.
It is Mubi’s second Cannes Competition buy this week, after the distributor took select territories on Na Hong-Jin’s Hope yesterday.
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