Night Of The 12th

Source: Fanny de Gouville

‘Night Of The 12th’

Memento International has sold Dominik Moll’s The Night Of The 12th to a slew of territories, including the US and the UK, following its debut in Cannes’ Premiere section.

Film Movement has acquired the title in North America, while Picturehouse Entertainment has picked it up for the UK and Ireland. 

Night Of The 12th has also sold to Australia and New Zealand (Potential Films), Latin America (Impacto), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Poland (Aurora), the Baltics (A-one Films) and Israel (Lev Cinema).

The sales are the latest in a raft of deals for French director Moll’s police procedural which stars Bastien Bouillon and Bouli Lanners.

Ahead of its Cannes Premiere, Night Of The 12th sold to Italy (Teodora), Spain (Filmin), Greece (Cinobo), ex-Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Bulgaria (Beta Films). Ascot Elite has acquired rights for Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The title also generated interest in Asia with deals for Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corporation) and Indonesia (PT Falcon).

Paris-based Haut et Court, which produced the film, distributes in France, and has set a July 13 launch date. Brussel-based distributor O Brother holds Belgian rights. Its sister company Versus Production co-produced.

The investigation drama is adapted from the non-fiction book ’18.3 - A Year With the Crime Squad’ by Pauline Guéna, who spent a year immersed in the criminal investigation department of Versailles outside Paris.

Moll and long-time co-writing partner Gilles Marchand have transposed the setting to the southeastern French city of Grenoble and the Maurienne Valley in the foothills of the Alps.

Bouillon stars as a police investigator haunted by an unsolved case involving a complex female murder victim. Lanners features in the cast as an older colleague.

Reviewing the film, Screen critic Lisa Nesselon described it as ”a deft and satisfying police procedural in command of its unusual tone.”

Moll was previously in Cannes with Palme d’Or contenders Harry, He’s Here To Help (2000) and Lemming (2005) while his last feature Only The Animals premiered in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori in 2019.