Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to Mihai Mincan’s drama thriller “To The North” which will world premiere at Venice in the Horizons section.
Inspired by true events, the film follows Joel, a religious Filipino sailor, who finds a Romanian stowaway, Dumitru, hidden between some containers during his shift on a transatlantic ship. Joel decides to hide him and subsequently starts feeling tormented by his crew, friends and even God.
“To The North” stars Soliman Cruz, Niko Becker, Bart Guingona and Olivier Ho Hio Hen (“Stillwater”). The topnotch crew includes cinematographer George Chiper-Lillemark (“Immaculate”), sound designer Nicolas Becker (“Sound Of Metal”) and sound mixer Cyril Holtz (“The Sister Brothers”).
“To The North” is produced by De Film Production (“Alis”), Remora Films, Studio Bauhaus, Screening Emotions and Background Films.
“We can’t be prouder to represent the film. It is surprisingly masterful for a debut, an immersive cinematographic experience, with sound being a central character,” said Martin Gondre and Charles Bin, Best Friend Forever’s co-founders. They described the film as “a Modern western based on true events tense from beginning till its bloody end.”
Best Friend Forever’s 2022 line-up also includes Oscar-nominated director Alê Abreu’s “Perlimps” which just premiered at Annecy; Bertrand Bonello’s “Coma” which won the Fipresci award in Berlinale; and Andrea Bagney’s “Ramona” which just premiered at Karlovy Vary, among others.
Previous titles handled by Best Friend Forever include Kiro Russo’s Bolivian film “El Gran Movimiento;” and Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Brazilian film “Medusa” which played in Directors’ Fortnight and TIFF; and “Bloody Oranges” by Jean-Christophe Meurisse.
Best Friend Forever launched at Cannes in 2019 and is a sister company of Paris based Indie Sales.