Heretic has struck a series of deals on the Sundance-winning documentary ‘And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine’, with Picturehouse Entertainment acquiring the UK rights ahead of the film’s European premiere in the Generation 14plus strand at Berlin Film Festival.
The Athens-based company has also secured deals for Italy (Teodora Film), Benelux (September Film), Poland (Against Gravity) and the Czech Republic, where rights have been sold to the art and film distributor. Aerofilms trial and new streaming platform KVIFF.TV, both part of the KVIFF Group, a media conglomerate built around the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. This is the first title acquired under the new partnership.
“Fantastic Machine” will also be distributed on HBO and HBO Max channels in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. The film, which had its world premiere at Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary section, won the festival’s Special Jury Prize for Creative Vision.
The feature debut from directors Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck, whose 2016 short “Ten Meter Tower” was in competition at Sundance and Berlin, “Fantastic Machine” is a thought-provoking examination of humanity’s infatuation with itself and the framing of the world through the lens of the camera.
The filmmakers explore how humanity’s obsession with images has grown to change our behavior, examine the societal consequences stemming from the production of images from 45 billion cameras on the planet, and ask how humanity is gone from being a multi-billion dollar backyard image. the euro content industry in 200 years.
“We’re so excited to be working on this film. It’s such an exciting journey that, in addition to being incredibly exciting, raises a lot of important questions about where we came from with our image consumption and where we are at. now,” said Clare Binns of Picturehouse Entertainment. “We are totally passionate about documentaries at Picturehouse Entertainment, and having this wonderful film on our roster continues our great work with documentary makers with unique visions and compelling ideas.”
“A captivating and provocative work on the ambiguity of images, with a huge amount of well-chosen archive footage,” added Stefano Finesi of Teodora Film. “In an ideal world, it would be screened in all schools. We are thrilled to work with these talented filmmakers and the passion and dedication of the Heretic team.
“Fantastic Machine” is produced by Plattform Produktion (Sweden) and co-produced with SVT, (Sweden), Film i Väst and Bullitt Film (Denmark), with the support of Svenska Filminstitutet, Danish Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Arte GEIE , Swedish Arts Council, Municipality of Gothenburg and See-Through Films.
“We are thrilled that the film will resonate in so many different territories,” said Danielson and Van Aertryck. “We hope that his message supporting ‘image education’ will resonate with all audiences. We are grateful to Ioanna Stais and the Heretic team for championing our film sales with such dedication.
Heretic’s EFM list includes “A House in Jerusalem” by Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan, which recently had its world premiere at Rotterdam Intl. Film festival; “Magnetic Fields” by Yorgos Goussis, which was Greece’s official selection for this year’s international feature film Oscar race; Valentina Maurel’s debut album “I Have Electric Dreams”, which won three prizes at Locarno and first prize in the Horizontes Latinos section of San Sebastián; and “Runner” by Marian Mathias, created in Toronto, which won the jury prize in San Sebastian.