Film Movement, a distributor in the U.S. and Canada of some of big fest hits, has acquired all rights to Koji Fukada’s Un Certain Regard winner Harmonium.
Deal was announced by Film Movement at Locarno, where president Michael E. Rosenberg will be on the lookout for further first-run, award-winning foreign or indie titles, Film Movement’s stock-in-trade.
Reprising the set-up of the black comedy Hospitalite, Fukada’s admired second feature, Harmonium won Un Certain Regard’s Jury Prize, its runner’s up plaudit, this May at Cannes.
Harmonium will make its North American premiere at Toronto Film Fest, followed by a theatrical opening in early 2017, then a digital and home video bow.
Harmonium stars Tadanobu Asano, a Japanese actor (“Thor”) as an ex-con taken in by a family whose father (Kanji Furutachi) appears to owe him a favor. He is hired as an apprentice at the family’s factory. As the interloper initiates a flirtation with the wife (Mariko Tsutsui), “Harmonium” veers towards a slow-boiling critique of family life before a sudden dramatic event which takes it into completely different direction.
“Koji Fukada goes from strength to strength and his latest award-winning film is quite a complement to his earlier film ‘Hospitalite,’ said Rosenberg. “We are pleased to have them both in Film Movement’s catalog,” he added.
Recent Film Movement acquisitions take in gritty Flemish family crime saga “The Ardennes,” Savage Film’s Bart Van Langendonck, whose credits include Michael Roskam’s “Bullhead,” and Maiwenn’s “My King” (Mon Roi), which won Emmanuelle Bercot best actress at Cannes last year. “My King” will be released in New York on August 12 and Los Angeles on Aug. 26.
