EXCLUSIVE: The Match Factory has signed a raft of deals for Sam Garbarski’s Vijay And I and David Wnendt’s Wetlands ahead of their world premieres in Locarno.

Garbarski’s romantic comedy, starring Patricia Arquette, Moritz Bleibtreu and Danny Pudi, has been sold to the CIS and Baltic states (Project Manometr) and Taiwan (Encore Film), with negotiations currently underway for “a number of territories“, including Italy and Korea.

The world premiere of the Belgium-Luxembourg-Germany co-production is due to be held on Locarno’s Piazza Grande open-air venue on Thursday evening (Aug 8) after the presentation of a Pardo alla carriera to Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto, who starred in Vijay And I co-producer Pandora Film’s Mostly Martha which premiered on the Piazza Grande in 2001.

In addition, sales have been finalised on Wnendt’s Wetlands to Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Filmladen) and for a pan-Scandinavian deal (Future Film), with further deals under negotiation.

The adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s eponymous bestselling novel, starring local Ticino actress Carla Juri as a young woman with a very non-PC view on life, personal hygiene and good sex, is running in Locarno’s International Competition. 

The co-production by Berlin-based Rommel Film with ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel will have its world premiere on Sunday evening (Aug 11).

Ahead of the premiere, the film’s German distributor Majestic Filmverleih learnt this week that it has been awarded a total of $530,000 (€400,000) in distribution and media air-time funding from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) to support its release in German cinemas on August 22.

Aktis Film boards Puentes project

As the fifth EAVE Puentes producers workshop prepares to be held in Locarno for the first time this year, the German sales company Aktis Film International’s production arm has revealed that it will co-produce Sebastián Cordero’s Such Is Life In The Tropics (Sin Muertos No Hay Carnaval), one of the projects participating in Puentes.

The film will be a co-production between Carnaval Cine, the Quito-based outfit launched by Arturo Yepez with director Cordero and Andres Crespo;  Argentinian producer Sebastián Aloi’s Aeroplano S.A.; and Leipzig-based Aktis Film Production, which holds all German-speaking territories (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Alto Adige).

Scheduled to begin shooting in Ecuador in March 2014, the tragic tale centres on an illegal hunting trip in the jungle where a local bigwig fatally shoots the young son of a foreign ornithologist. The man manages to escape undetected, but his action triggers a chain of tragic events, exposing a morass of corruption, lies and violence.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, Aktis Film’s Stelios Ziannis said: “We are very pleased to be involved as a co-producer in the new feature film of this highly talented and recognised director. At the same time, it is our first project with Latin America. “

Cordero’s previous features include his second film Crónicas, which won awards at the festivals in Sundance, San Sebastian and Guadalajara, and the award-winning 2011 film Pescador based on a novel by Sergio Bizzio.

His latest film Europa Report, an English-language sci-fi thriller about a space mission to one of Jupiter’s moons, was released theatrically in the US at the beginning of August.

Aktis Film Production was launched in June and has already committed as a co-producer to projects by Georgian film-maker Omar Shamatava (Ursus) and German directors Constantin Werner (Snow In The Carpathians) and Peter Kahane (The Boarding School).