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Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Beta Reveals Sales for ‘Let It Rain,' ‘The Physician II,' ‘The Light'
Leading sales agency Beta Cinema has revealed a tranche of sales to major territories for 'Let It Rain,' 'The Physician II' and 'The Light.' The Swedish comedy 'Let It Rain,' directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Hannes Holm, was sold to Leonine (German-speaking territories), Benelux and Singapore (September Film), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Israel (Lev Cinemas). More from Variety 'Case 137' Director Dominik Moll on Exploring the Gilets Jaunes Riots in His Cannes-Premiering Political Drama: 'These Divisions Still Exist' in French Society Breaking Through the Lens Co-Founder Daphne Schmon on What Has to Change for Gender Equity in Film: 'We Need Actions to Speak Louder Than Words' Riley Keough to Star in Albert Serra's English-Language Debut 'Out of This World,' Exploring U.S.-Russia Rivalry Amid the Ukrainian War (EXCLUSIVE) Robert Gustafsson ('The 100-Year-Old Man'), Jonas Karlsson ('The Snowman') and Karin Lithman ('The Bridge') star in the tale of a grumpy widower who, by miracle or coincidence, finds himself at the center of an event that could transform not only his own life but the fate of his entire village—and possibly the world. Holm earned two Academy Award nominations for 'A Man Called Ove' in 2015. The film became an international box office hit in 2016, grossing over $30 million worldwide, and was later remade as 'A Man Called Otto,' starring Tom Hanks. Holm is one of Sweden's most successful filmmakers, with other hits like 'Adam & Eva' (1997), 'Shit Happens' (2010) and the 'Andersson Trilogy' (2012-2014), all of which set box office records in Sweden. The sweeping epic, 'The Physician II,' starring Tom Payne ('Horizon,' 'Prodigal Son') in the leading role as the gifted healer Rob Cole, was presold to Spain (Dea Planeta), Portugal (Outsider Pictures), Italy (Rai Cinema), Austria (ORF), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Bonton), Former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Poland (Monolith), and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (Paradise). This long-awaited sequel to the international box office hit 'The Physician,' explores early treatment of the human soul and is set amidst a gripping royal intrigue in medieval Europe. Emily Cox ('The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die'), Aiden Gillen ('Game of Thrones,' 'Maze Runner') and Liam Cunningham ('Game of Thrones,' 'Hunger') co-star. Tom Tykwer's Berlinale Opening movie 'The Light' was sold to Italy (Rai Cinema), Benelux (September Film), Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia (European Film Forum), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery), Hungary and Bulgaria (ADS), Greece (TFG), Turkey (Bir Film), Taiwan (Cineplex) and Brazil (Imovision). The politically charged drama stars Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz as parents of a modern Berlin family on the brink, navigating deep personal and ideological rifts in a rapidly changing world. Tykwer ranks among Germany's most acclaimed directors with a track record including his breakout hit 'Run Lola Run,' 'Cloud Atlas' with Tom Hanks and Hale Barry, and the international hit series 'Babylon Berlin.' Deals across more than 15 territories for Beta Cinema's Cannes Première title, 'Amrum,' directed by Fatih Akin, were announced earlier this week by Variety. Beta Cinema's Cannes slate also includes the Italian hit comedy 'U.S. Palmese' by directors Antonio and Marco Manetti, the Spanish debut 'The Remnants of You' by Gala Gracia and the Nina Hoss-led Berlinale drama 'Cicadas,' directed by Ina Weisse ('The Audition'). Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Reedland' Review: Outstanding Slow-Burn Thriller Announces Potentially Major New Dutch Director Sven Bresser
Johan (Gerrit Knobbe) is a reed-cutter. As 'Reedland' opens, we meet him in his natural habitat, surrounded by hissing, shivering reeds shot in close-up, then in wide shot. It's a sonic and visual maze, the natural world's equivalent of TV static: earth-bound, mud-rooted and subtly threatening in its hypnotic, fluttering illusion of uniformity. Reeds are the perfect hiding place for horrors, as will shortly become abundantly clear, when a girl's body is revealed in the dirt, in all its helplessness. A violent crime fracturing a tight-knit community is hardly a new subject for arthouse cinema, but it is handled here by freshman writer-director Sven Bresser with an original eye and a keen sense of how to generate a persistent atmosphere of foreboding. It was filmed in Weerribben-Wieden in the Netherlands, and the landscape is integral to this finely calibrated mood. 'Whispering' is probably the adjective most associated with reeds, giving the land the stark sense of harboring infinite witnesses who cannot speak of the crimes they have seen — at least, not in any language we can understand. More from Variety Beta Reveals Sales for 'Let It Rain,' 'The Physician II,' 'The Light' 'Case 137' Director Dominik Moll on Exploring the Gilets Jaunes Riots in His Cannes-Premiering Political Drama: 'These Divisions Still Exist' in French Society Breaking Through the Lens Co-Founder Daphne Schmon on What Has to Change for Gender Equity in Film: 'We Need Actions to Speak Louder Than Words' Well-chosen place-name titles are more than just a convenient piece of orientation for an audience. When used judiciously, they plant a flag in that location, forever binding the place and the film together. 'Reedland' is not the name of a town or road, but a terrain that provides the physical and psychological setting for an eerily poetic character study. Knobbe is an extraordinary presence as Johan, a widower who has worked at his job for decades, and is now also an attentive grandfather. As the camera studies Knobbe's weather-beaten face, you watch him, trying to place which Ingmar Bergman film you might know him from. But he isn't an actor, and you've never seen him before. He is an actual reed-cutter, discovered by Brasser during the process of researching and building the film, which makes his tightly controlled performance all the more impressive, and provides persuasive evidence of Brasser's aptitude as both talent-spotter and performance coach. Knobbe's face is shaped by his work in the outdoors, in a way that you simply don't see with actors nowadays, when a high proportion of both men and women seem to be engaged in counterintuitive quests to make their faces, the primary tool of an actor, less capable of expression. Knobbe's, by contrast, gives lived experience — it is its own craggy, fathomless landscape. In addition to Bergman, the lineage of European filmmakers into which this dark, finely judged film slots includes the likes of Michael Haneke and Thomas Vinterberg. But 'Reedland' also recalls Japanese director Kaneto Shindō's 1964 masterpiece 'Onibaba' with its hints of supernatural evil. There, as here, reedland is presented as a breeding ground for more than just mosquitoes: It contains madness and murder. The two films share some visual strategies, with reeds-as-labyrinth shots just as effective a motif now as they were 60 years ago. Not to suggest that DP Sam du Pon's camera only gets landscapes to work with. Numerous vignettes of the small community's existence both in public and private afford Bresser and du Pon the opportunity to explore how people reconcile their public and private selves, on one occasion via the precise framing of a shot where Johan engages with pornography on his laptop, and we glimpse artwork by his granddaughter pinned to a wall in the background. With a tight runtime, magnetic central performance and bleak but compelling subject matter, theatrical prospects could be potentially rewarding for an appropriate arthouse distributor. This is a film designed to be seen on the big screen, and while it should certainly have appeal for high-class streamers, it'd be a pity to see it skip cinemas. For audiences looking to take a step up from standard Scandi-noir murder fare on TV while staying firmly within the realm of accessible narrative cinema, 'Reedland' is an outstanding discovery. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
