South Korean sales company Finecut has announced the pre-sales of Korea-France co-productionA Brand New Life, directed by Ounie Lecomte. Canal Plus has taken French television rights while Diaphana has picked up other French-speaking rights.

A PPP 2008 project, A Brand New Life, currently in post-production, is Lecomte’s feature debut, inspired by her own childhood experiences as a Korean adopted abroad.

Billed as the first official co-production to be made under the aegis of the Korea-France co-production treaty, the film is produced by Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, whose Cannes 2007 entry Secret Sunshine Diaphana also previously picked up for France; Lee Joon-dong (My Mother The Mermaid) and Laurent Lavole (Mutum, Après Lui).

Their production companies Now Films in Korea and Gloria Films in France are co-producing.

The film is about a nine-year-old Korean girl whose father sends her to a Catholic orphanage in hopes that she will get adopted. Told from the child’s perspective, the film focuses on her struggle with the separation from her father, and what happens as she endures and waits until she is adopted.

Sovik Venture Capital and DCG Plus, which backed the recent Korean box office hit Scandal Makers, are financing the film.