The Sundance Film Festival world premiere of Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee has proved profitable, with distributor Neon picking up North American rights in a reported seven-figure deal, following an overnight bidding war. Based on a true story, the buzzy European co-pro recently added Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
as exec producers and English-language voice stars.
Writer-director Rasmussen (What He Did, Searching for Bill) commented: “Very excited to work with groundbreaking distributors Neon on getting Flee out. Their roster of titles include a vast amount of my favorite films from the last couple of years and I’m extremely proud to now include my own work on that list.”
Flee is an animated documentary about a man who must confront his past in order to truly have a future. Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, at 36, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for over 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built for himself. For the first time he is sharing his story with his close friend. Ahmed will voice Amin, while Coster-Waldau plays Rasmussen.
The film is produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), co-produced by Sun Creature (Denmark), Vivement Lundi! (France), MostFilm (Sweden), Mer Film (Norway), ARTE (France) and Vpro (The Netherlands), supported and produced in association with VICE Studios, RYOT Films and Ahmed’s Left Handed Films.
Producers are Monica Hellström and Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real, and Charlotte De La Gournerie for Sun Creature. Previously selected for Cannes 2020, Flee is also one of the projects selected for the 2021 Cartoon Movie event in March.
Cinephil is handling international sales, while 30WEST covers North America. The NorAm deal was negotiated with Jeff Deutchman for Neon. The distributor has notably rolled out high-profile indies and imports such as I, Tonya, Bad Hair, Palm Springs, Portrait of a Lady on Fire and quadruple Oscar winner Parasite.
[Source:
Deadline]
