12/09/2006

London-based sales company The Works has just picked up international sales rights to Children, the Icelandic film by Ragnar Bragason, selected in the prestigious Zabaltegi-New Directors section in San Sebastian (September 21-30).

Bragason is an internationally recognised director of music videos and his directorial debut Fiasco won several awards, including the Jury Award at the Cairo Film Festival in 2000 and the Icelandic Cultural Award. Children, his second feature film, is the independent first part of two-feature project exploring the roles of children and parents.

The second film, Parents, is currently in post-production and will also be released in Iceland later this year. The film’s production company Vesturport is a renowned theatre company whose latest production, Metamorphosis (by Kafka), will be staged at London’s Lyric Theatre. The film was produced in cooperation with Artbox (who will release the film in Iceland later this month), Klikk Productions and Köggull Filmworks. The Works will start selling the film in Toronto this week.

Also in the company’s Toronto line-up are two UK films making their world premieres as Special Presentations: Shane Meadows’ wry comedy This is England [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Venus by Roger Michell (The Mother [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), to be released in the UK by BVI next January.

French Canadian director Philippe Falardeau’s Congorama [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will also have its North American premiere as a Special Presentation.