Palm Pictureshas acquired all US rights to Claude Chabrol's Flower Of Evil (La FleurDu Mal), the acclaimeddirector's latest film that premiered at this year's Berlin FilmFestival.

Palm plans a theatrical release in the autumn followed bya DVD and video roll-out next year.

The Flower OfEvil is set in theBordeaux region of France and stars Nathalie Baye (Catch Me If You Can,Venus Beauty Institute)and Benoit Magimel (The Piano Teacher) in the tale of a respected middle class family beset bytragedy when a murder occurs.

Suzanne Flon,Bernard Le Coq and Melanie Doutey co-star and the film was produced by MarinKarmitz.

The deal wasnegotiated by David Koh, head of acquisitions and production, and Ryan Werner,head of theatrical distribution, for Palm Pictures, and by Florence Stern, headof sales for MK2.

The Flower OfEvil has almost beensold worldwide and recorded 1.1million admissions in its first seven weeks ofrelease in France.

"Palm Pictures hasbeen interested in this film since the Berlin Film Festival, and we areextremely happy that we have been entrusted with its release," Koh andWerner said in a statement.

The film joins Palm'sgrowing slate of foreign-language and arthouse fare including OlivierAssayas' demonlover, DagurKari's Noi Albinoi, ClaudeBerri's The Housekeeper,John W Walter's How To Draw A Bunny and Baltasar Kormakur's The Sea.