Paramount Classics has bought North American and other international rights to Andrei Konchalovski's House Of Fools (Dom Durakov), which won the second prize at Venice last week.

In a deal mirroring its pick-up last week of another Venice favourite, Patrice Leconte's The Man On The Train (L'Homme Du Train), Paramount classics took UK, Australian, New Zealand and Latin American rights.

Veteran director Konchalovski's anti-war drama is a tale about the inmates of a lunatic asylum who are blissfully unaware of the Chechen war raging only metres from their door.

The Toronto deal was struck between Paramount's Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein and French sales agent Roissy Films' Raphael Berdugo.