Alma & Oskar

Source: Picture Tree International

‘Alma & Oskar’

Berlin-based Picture Tree International has confirmed several new deals on its AFM slate.

Crime drama Schächten: A Retribution has gone to Alfa Pictures (Spain), Moving Stores (Australia), HBO/Warner Media for central and eastern Europe, and to One Gate (formerly Studio Hamburg Enterprises) for Germany and Austria for VoD.

Directed by Thomas Roth, the film is about a young Jewish businessman in 1960s Vienna who takes the law into his own hands when the prosecution of a Nazi crime against his family fails. The film previously sold to US outfit Menemsha; an Austrian release is set for early December by Filmladen.

Picture Tree has also snared new buyers for Alma & Oskar, its historical romantic drama about the torrid love affair between Viennese grande dame Alma Mahler and expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka. New deals confirmed are Vercine for Spain, Voxell Films SIA for the CIS and Sky Digi for Taiwan.

Alma & Oskar will be released in Germany and Austria in spring 2023 by Alamode, in Switzerland by DCM Film Distribution, and in Czech Republic and Slovakia by CineMart.

There have also been new deals on Picture Tree’s A Stasi Comedy, directed by Leander Haussmann. This has gone to Alfa Pictures for Spain, Palace for Australia, ADS Service Ltd for Hungary, AV-Jet International for Taiwan, and Spafax and Anuvu for airlines.

The film is set in early 1980s East Berlin and follows a man hired by the Stasi to spy on the oppositional arts scene in Prenzlauer Berg. But when he falls in love with a mysterious woman, he has to choose between a life as a celebrated underground poet and his career as a Stasi agent.