Starline has taken international rights to “The Cellar,” the crime thriller from Russian filmmaker Igor Voloshin (“Bedouin”).
The picture is a three-way co-production between Slovakia’s Furia Film, Russia’s Gate Film, and the Czech Republic’s 8Heads Production. It was largely filmed in the Slovak Republic where it will be released this week through Italfilm.
“The Cellar” stars French-American actor Jean-Marc Barr (“The Big Blue”) as a jobbing musician in a failing marriage who decides to take the law into his own hands when his teenage daughter goes missing. Voloshin regular Olga Simonova (“Bedouin”) stars alongside Barr, with Milan Ondrik (“Eva Nova”), John Robinson (“Elephant”) and newcomers, Simoneta Hladka and Dalibor Stofan providing support.
U.K.-based sales outfit Starline has been building a lineup of world cinema titles that sit alongside its roster of feature documentaries. It recently acquired Tom Collins’ Irish-language period drama “Penance.”
Starline’s director of acquisitions Piers Nightingale did the deal for “The Cellar” with Furia Film’s Livia Filusova. “Exploring the extreme lengths a parent will go to for the sake of a child, Voloshin’s Cellar opens the door on something universally primal, and we can’t wait to bring this darkly compelling thriller to the wider, international market,” Nightingale said.