New Europe Film Sales has closed more deals for “Leave No Traces,” from Polish director Jan P. Matuszyński (“The Last Family”), which had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival and will represent Poland in the 2022 Academy Awards race.
Produced by Aurum Film, the production house behind Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” pic has sold to Estonia (Estin Film), Slovakia (Slovak Film Clubs Assn.), former Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Portugal (Films4You) and Spain (Filmin).
New Europe previously sealed deals for the film in France (Memento Films Distribution), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution), U.K. and Ireland (Modern Films), Lithuania (Scanorama), Hungary (Mozinet), Greece (Cinobo), Sweden (Lucky Dogs) and Czech Republic (Aero).
Set in Warsaw in the 1980s, “Leave No Traces” is based on the real-life story of a young man (Tomasz Ziętek) who witnesses the fatal beating of his friend (Mateusz Górski) by the police. Determined to testify about the killing in court, he must stand up to the full force of a communist regime that employs the secret service, the police force, the media and the corrupt court system to try to silence him.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the film’s Venice premiere, Matuszyński said he was instantly captivated by Cezary Łazarewizc’s “Leave No Traces: The Case of Grzegorz Przemyk,” the book on which the film was based.
“One of the questions that got into my mind while reading it was how many things can you actually find out about what happened there? How much of the truth can you get?” he said.
“Leave No Traces” is produced by Leszek Bodzak and Aneta Hickinbotham for Aurum Film, in co-production with Les Contes Modernes, Arte France Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes-Cinéma, Canal Plus, Background Films, Magiclab, Czech Television, and the Mazovia Warsaw Film Fund. It was produced with the support of the Polish Film Institute, Région Provence-Alpes-Côte D’azur, and Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and in partnership with the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and Czech Film Fund.
New Europe’s AFM slate includes Venice competition selection “Reflection,” by Valentyn Vasyanovych; Toronto Platform premiere “Silent Land,” by Aga Woszczyńska; “Other People,” the feature debut of Aleksandra Terpińska; and “A Place Called Dignity,” from Chilean helmer Matías Rojas. It’s also repping “Medusa Deluxe,” the forthcoming crime mystery thriller by Tom Hardiman, which will be ready in 2022.