Cologne-based The Match Factory has picked up international distribution for its third Venice competition title with the acquisition of Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu's Milk (Süt), the second part of his Yusuf trilogy.

With a mother-son relationship as its main focus, Milk stars Melih Selçuk, Basak Köklükaya, and Riza Akin, and is produced by Kaplanoglu's Istanbul-based Kaplan Film in co-production with Belgium's Arizona Films and Germany's Heimatfilm.

The project had been pitched at such events as the CineMart in Rotterdam, Berlinale Coproduction Market and Belgrade's B2B market and received support from the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund, among others.

The first film in the trilogy, Egg (Yumurta), was premiered at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight last year, followed by numerous festival screenings and awards at such festivals as Antalya, Sarajevo, Sevilla and Seoul, while the final part of the trilogy, Honey, is set to begin shooting in 2009.

The Match Factory is also handling international sales on two other Venice competition titles - Christian Petzold's Jerichow and Haile Gerima's Teza - screening as world premieres in Venice.

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