Kino Lorber has acquired all U.S. rights to The Decent One, the pic that just won the Best Documentary award at the 2014 Jerusalem Film Festival. That’s the fest that was impacted by war itself this month, with attendees rushed into bomb shelter as rockets soared and troops began moving on the ground in the ongoing clash between Israel and Hamas. Decent One, directed by Vanessa Lapa, premiered in Berlin this year and reveals the secret personal writings and photographs from the private life of Nazi SS Commander Heinrich Himmler, providing an authentic account of the reality of Nazi Germany during Hitler’s reign through the eyes of the Nazi’s military leader. The pic is set to open at Film Forum in NYC on October 1 before a national rollout as part of an Oscar-qualifying run.
Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber negotiated the deal with Cinephil managing director Philippa Kowarsky.
“The Decent One excavates archival history to shed light on the unfathomable Nazi evil as no other film has done,” Lorber said. “Its resonances are profoundly and uniquely relevant to crimes against humanity going on all over the world today.”
The company also announced the acquisition of lit adaptation Winter in the Blood, starring Twilight Saga co-stars Chaske Spencer and Julia Jones. David Morse also stars in the Montana-set drama about Virgil First Raise (Spencer), who wakes up in a ditch to find his wife has left him and taken his beloved rifle. He sets out to find her beginning a hi-line odyssey of inebriated and possibly imagined intrigues in town. Writer-directors Alex and Andrew Smith adapted from the novel by Native American author James Welch in their second feature following The Slaughter Rule. Pic premiered in competition at the LA Film Fest and will open August 20 in NY with LA dates to follow.
“The novel Winter in the Blood is a true classic – unique, universal, timeless, and uncompromising,” said co-director Alex Smith, “It touches people in a profound, life-changing way because it is a story of survival and recovery. Our desire has always been to expose this unflinching, hilarious, ferocious story to a worldwide audience in the collective dream-house of cinema.”
Winter in the Blood features a score by Austin band Heartless Bastards and songs by Robert Plant, Black Prairie, and Cass McCombs and is produced by Susan Kirr, Sherman Alexie, Heather Rae, Jason Miller and Peter Wiley. The deal on the Ranchwater Films Production was negotiated by Susan Kirr, Alex Smith and Andrew Smith of Ranchwater Films and Elizabeth Sheldon, Senior Vice-President of Kino Lorber.
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