Bright Women (Brillantes)

Source: MPM Premium

‘Bright Women’ (‘Brillantes’)

MPM Premium has boarded French drama Bright Women (Brillantes) and has unveiled more sales for Until Tomorrow, Umami and Ghosts ahead of Unifrance’s annual Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

MPM will market premiere Bright Women for buyers at Rendez-Vous, where it will kick off global sales for the film ahead of its debut in French theatres on January 18 via Alba Films.

The first feature from Sylvie Gautier, Bright Women follows a housekeeper and mother who is asked to lead a movement of unionised workers and finds herself in a moral dilemma. The film is produced by Sensito Films and stars Céline Sallette (Corporate, Tropic of Violence), Camille Lellouche, Thomas Gloria and Eyé Haidara.

Meanwhile, MPM Premium has sold Ali Asgari’s Until Tomorrow (Ta Farda) to Filmin in Spain and to Ale Kino in Poland. The Iran-French-Qatar co-production first premiered in the Panorama section at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival and hit theatres in France on November 14 via Bodega and in Switzerland on November 30 through Xenix. Until Tomorrow is a timely tale about women’s rights in Iran that follows a young single mother searching for a safe place for her baby for the night and attempting to hide the child’s existence from her parents. Until Tomorrow is produced by Silk Road Productions, Novoprod Cinema, Taat Films and Premium Films.

MPM Premium has also sold Iranian film District Terminal to HBO Europe. The film from directors Bardia Yadegari and Ehsan Mirhosseini premiered in the Berlinale Encounters section in 2021 and takes Iran’s current conflicts into a dystopian future focusing on a poet living with his mother in Tehran and struggling with poverty, drug addiction and a toxic love affair.

MPM will also give Belgian moviegoers a taste of its Franco-Japanese culinary comedy Umami starring Gérard Depardieu with the film selling to Athena in the territory, following a spate of sales worldwide including Rialto in Australia and New Zealand and Jerome Hilal’s new label Zinc in France. Depardieu stars alongside Sandrine Bonnaire and Pierre Richard as a chef on a quest for the ultimate flavour after a near-death experience. Deals for the film in the US and Canada are in negotiations.

MPM Premium has also sold Azra Deniz Okyay’s Turkish drama Ghosts to La Vingt-Cinquieme Heure in France. Ghosts won the Grand Prize at Venice Critics Week and previously sold to Mubi for the UK, Ireland, Italy, Turkey and Scandinavia. The debut feature follows four characters in a gentrified neighbourhood in Istanbul whose paths intertwine during a drug deal.