The Match Factory has announced a slew of sales on Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s “Notturno,” which has been making the rounds at top fests such as Venice, Toronto and New York.
The deals were announced as Rome’s Oct. 14-18 MIA market (Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo, or International Audiovisual Market) kicked off.
Rosi’s high-profile doc shot over three years along the rattled borders of Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, and Lebanon in the director’s signature observational, but also empathetic style, has gone to arthouse streaming service MUBI for U.K./Ireland, India, Latin America and Turkey, among other deals.
Rosi’s latest work segues from migration-themed “Fire at Sea” that won the 2016 Berlin Golden Bear, and “Sacro GRA,” winner of the 2013 Venice Golden Lion.
The doc capturing people who have long been contending with the ravages of war and terror, most recently inflicted by ISIS, has also been sold by Match Factory to: Austria (Filmladen); Benelux (Cineart); Ex-Yugolsavia (Demiurg); Japan (Bitters End); Portugal (Leopardo); Switzerland (Xenix); Taiwan (Joint Entertainment) and Poland (New Horizons).
After world premiering to mostly positive reviews at Venice, “Notturno” had its North American premiere in Toronto, and seguing to New York, a feat matched this year only by “Nomadland.”
It will now screen at the London Film Festival this week, and also soon at IDFA in Amsterdam, where Rosi will be guest of honor of this year’s edition.
Theatrically “Notturno” has been released by 01 Distribution in Italy in early September and is set to go out in French theaters via distributor Métèore on Feb. 3, 2021.
“Notturno” is a production of 21Uno Film – Stemal Entertainment with Rai Cinema, with Istituto Luce – Cinecittà, with the contribution of the Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo – Mibact and the support of Eurimages, co-produced by Les Films D’Ici (France) with Arte France Cinéma, No Nation Films (Germany) and Mizzi Stock Entertainment (Germany). It is produced by Donatella Palermo, Gianfranco Rosi, Serge Lalou and Camille Laemlè, Orwa Nyrabia, Eva-Maria Weerts.