EXCLUSIVE: Bankside has inked a slew of sales on Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 following its Special Gala premiere at the Berlinale this month.
The largely well-received film has sold to Bulgaria (Beta), Canada (Level Film), Czech/Slovak (AQS), Eastern Europe excluding Poland (HBO), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery), France (Metopolitan), Hungary (Budapest Film), Israel (Naschon/Red Cape), Italy (Lucky Red), Middle East (Front Row), Scandinavia (SF Studios), South Korea (The Coup) and Spain (Selecta Vision).
Alamode Film holds distribution rights for German-speaking Europe and will be releasing the film in March on more than 200 screens, September Film for Benelux and Madness for Poland. Discussions are ongoing for distribution in both UK and U.S.
The English and German-language pic tells the story behind one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, how it almost didn’t happen, and how one formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes, breaks boundaries to set the conditions for the creation of a masterpiece. Vera, still in high school when she started producing and promoting music concerts in Cologne, puts everything on the line to put on the show.
Mala Emde (And Tomorrow The Entire World) plays Vera Brandes and John Magaro (September 5) is in the role of Keith Jarrett and Michael Chernus (Severance) plays fictional music journalist Michael Watts.
Supporting cast includes Alexander Scheer, Ulrich Tukur, Jördis Triebel, Susanne Wolff, Leo Meier, Shirin Eissa and Enno Trebs.
The film is produced by Sol Bondy and Fred Burle of One Two Films, who most recently produced Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, which premiered in Cannes competition in 2022 and received a Best Actress prize at the festival. Bankside Films is handling worldwide sales.
New York based writer-director, Ido Fluk is currently in development on his HBO series, Empty Mansions, with Joe Wright and Fremantle. He previously co-wrote and directed Tribeca competition title, The Ticket, starring Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman.
