EXCLUSIVE: Sundance Selects has acquired U.S. rights to French director Jacques Audiard‘s latest, currently untitled, feature film.
The film, currently shooting, centers on a Sri-Lankan Tamil warrior who flees his war-torn country and seeks asylum in France as a political refugee, posing as a husband and father to two fellow escapees. In the suburbs of Paris, he takes up a position as caretaker of a run-down housing block. His attempt to obtain a stable life is interrupted by the violent gang of the drug dealers that rules the derelict neighborhood. Unwillingly drawn into the conflict, the former soldier must make a difficult choice whether to take a violent path once more.
Audiard’s two previous films, Un Prophete and Rust And Bone, were acquired for the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics. Audiard, one of France’s most acclaimed filmmakers, is known for his appreciation of American cinema. His 2005 Beat That My Heart Skipped was a remake – some might even argue improvement- of James Toback’s classic 70’s drama Fingers starring Harvey Keitel.
Audiard co-wrote the screenplay with regular collaborator Thomas Bidegain and up-and-coming writer Noé Debré. Pascal Caucheteux and Grégoire Sorlat are producing.
The deal for the film was negotiated by Hengameh Panahi of Celluloid Dreams with Wild Bunch co-representing and Arianna Bocco for Sundance Selects/IFC Films
