Scripted

Following a successful international release in Main Competition at Berlin International Film Festival, the movie U - JULY 22 the film has been acquired for UK and Ireland by the London-based Modern Films, Japanese rights have been sold to Culture Entertainment and not least French rights have been sold to Potemkine Films.

Previously announced sales include Germany/Austria (Weltkino); Benelux (September Film); Poland (Aurora); Greece (Feelgood); and Baltics (Estin); Latin America (California), China (HGC), Korea (Cinema de Manon), Hungary (Vertigo), Slovakia and Czech Republic (Film Europe) and Portugal (Alambique).

Managing Director of the London-based Modern Films, Eve Gabereau states: “U - July 22 is a film that exists to be experienced and is an emotional tribute to real events. It speaks out about violence, gun crime, politics and mental health on a global scale and leaves you with both sadness about the past and hope for the future by tackling destructive human behavior head-on. Reflection and action are powerful tools and ones that must be used. I am driven to participate in this discussion through cinema and audience engagement and I thank the participants in the film, Erik Poppe and TrustNordisk for entrusting this piece of work to me and my team in the UK.”

Senior Manager of Acquisitions at Culture Entertainment, Etsuko Indo connects the following comment to their acquisition of the film: “We are astonished by Erik Poppe’s one-take approach to filmmaking and also very moved by the film and the story behind it.”

In connection to the international premiere, the trades celebrated the film with great reviews, celebrating the courage of director Erik Poppe and his approach to the subject. Furthermore, the film received an Honorable Mention from the Ecumenical Jury during Berlin Int. Film Festival.

Screendaily wrote: “Just as there were with films about 9/11, questions will be raised as to how long filmmakers should wait before revisiting terrible real-life events, and indeed who they’re making their films for. (…) And an answer to both questions, here, lies in the compassion and integrity of Eric Poppe’s approach – not just his focus on the victims (with no screen time for the right-wing extremist and mass murderer Anders Breivik), but in the way, he has portrayed the incident itself.”

Screendaily continues: "Ultimately, it’s an homage to the very generation of young Norwegians who Breivik wanted to obliterate."

Indiwire commented: “A movie with the power to re-sensitize us to violence, restoring a terrible shape to the mass horrors we’ve allowed to become abstractions."

Nordisk Film distributes in Scandinavia. The film has received production grants from the Norwegian Film Institute through the artistic assessment scheme.

Domestic premiere is set for March 9th.