By Jamie Lang

Blue Fox Entertainment has picked up North American rights to Brazilian lockdown thriller “The Pink Cloud,” a timely and prescient hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema – Dramatic section.

The distributor, which recently opened Julie Delpy’s Toronto Platform title “My Zoe,” plans to release the film in theaters across North America this fall.

UTA Independent Film Group handled the North American sales of “The Pink Cloud,” negotiating with Blue Fox. MPM Premium is selling the film internationally and has already dealt the thriller to Trigon in Switzerland and Russian World Vision in Russia, with distributors from several other major territories currently in negotiations.

In “The Pink Cloud,” humanity is forced indoors by a mysterious cloud of gas which is lethal to anyone who breathes it in. The gas’ arrival is inexplicable, particularly because it pops up across the globe seemingly simultaneously causing lockdowns, food shortages and general panic.

While many of the themes of “The Pink Cloud” are immediately relatable to audiences in 2021 who themselves have spent much of the last year indoors, the film was written in 2017 and filmed in 2019, long before COVID-19 was even a blip on the radar.

The events of “The Pink Cloud” are experienced from the point of view of a couple, Giovana and Yago, who met just one day before the sinister stratocumulus arrival and are forced to cohabitate while waiting for news of the cloud’s movement and hoping that eventually they will be able to go outside again.  As days turn into weeks turn into months, the two have only one another to share face-to-face time with, and those they can reach via phone, tablet and computer screens. But Giovana and Yago’s view of their relationship and how to react to the pink cloud rapidly diverge.

“The Pink Cloud” also proved the banner title in a raft of innovative feature debuts from young Brazilian women filmmakers hitting the international market at Ventana Sur.

Thus far, the film’s festival, market and theatrical success have been matched by critical acclaim as well. In his Variety review, Guy Lodge said the “Brazilian chamber piece nails lockdown life with aching, accidental accuracy,” “It might endure as more era-evocative than many of the intentional pandemic dramas to come,” he added.

“What we loved in ‘The Pink Cloud’ is that the film asks and examines truly fundamental questions about human behavior, isolation and relationships. It’s a remarkable directorial debut that we think will really resonate with U.S. audiences,” said Blue Fox’s James Huntsman.

“The Pink Cloud” is director Iuli Gerbase’s feature debut and was produced by Patricia Barbieri with Gerbase’s label Prana Filmes. It was supported financially by Brazil’s Fundo Sectorial Audiovisual, managed by Ancine.

“We’re very excited to see Blue Fox release the film in theaters this fall and offer a cathartic watch to North American viewers.” added Quentin Worthington, MPM Premium’s head of sales.

“’The Pink Cloud’ shows so many of the emotions that we’ve all been through in this past year. The visual depiction of this chamber play, its haunting soundtrack as well as the splendid performance of the main actors convinced us right away” said Trigon’s Merett Ruggle at Trigon.

Russian World Vision has already premiered the film, where the audience premiere was held in the biggest Moscow cinema – October Cinema. The conference was hosted by one of the best movie critics in Russia – Alisa Taezhnaya, the distributor reported, saying it is currently planning a major theatrical rollout across the country.

Fonte: https://variety.com/2021/film/global/blue-fox-entertainment-the-pink-cloud-mpm-premium-1234985313/