Berlin-based world sales company M-Appeal has secured multiple international deals at the Cannes Film Market for Michiel van Erp’s Dutch drama Downtown, Joaquín del Paso’s The Garden We Dreamed and Muriel d’Ansembourg’s debut Truly Naked.
Downtown has sold to Dark Star Pictures for North America and Salzgeber for Germany and Austria. The film will world premiere soon at Frameline. Set between the hedonistic gay nightlife of 1980s Amsterdam and the present day, the story follows three young men whose close bond is shaped on the dance floor of the city’s nightclub scene. As regulars begin to disappear, the atmosphere of their local paradise changes and so do the relationships inside it. The cast includes Yorick van Wageningen, Hans Kesting and Roeland Fernhout. The film is produced by Maarten Swart of Kaap Holland Film, together with Van Erp and Monique Busman of Het Familiedrama. Dark Star Pictures said the film feels both personal and accessible, while Salzgeber’s involvement continues its focus on LGBTQ+ cinema.
Del Paso’s The Garden We Dreamed, which premiered in Berlinale Panorama, has sold to Arsenal for Germany and Austria, Falcon for Indonesia and Dexin Film for Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo. Set in a remote forest in central Mexico, the film follows Esther and Junior, a Haitian couple traveling north with Esther’s two daughters in search of a better future. Their fragile hope is tested by illegal logging and organized crime threatening the surrounding land. Arsenal described the film as emotional, engaging and highly accessible. Falcon Pictures, which has added several Cannes Competition titles to its slate, is among the latest buyers on the film.
Truly Naked, which world premiered in Berlinale Perspectives, has sold to Wanted Cinema for Italy and Cinobo for Poland and Greece. The new deals add to an already broad list of international buyers, including companies in Portugal, the U.K. and Ireland, Hong Kong, Scandinavia, Spain, North America, Latin America, Taiwan, India and Korea. The film follows Alec, an introverted teenager raised around his father’s adult entertainment business, whose understanding of intimacy changes when he meets Nina. Blending bold imagery with a sex-positive approach, the story explores intimacy, masculinity and how young people learn and unlearn ideas about desire, connection and vulnerability.
Wanted Cinema said it is drawn to films that address the present with courage and sensitivity, calling Truly Naked a bold and contemporary debut. Cinobo’s recent acquisitions include films by Lukas Dhont, Kore-eda and Miaus.
