May 18, 2022 10:02pm PT

By John Hopewell

“The Pink Cloud,” a feminist quarantine drama and flagship feature of Brazil’s new generation of female filmmakers, has closed three more major territories for Paris-based MPM Premium, sealing licensing deals in France (Universciné), Japan (Senlis) and Germany (Lighthouse). 

With MPM Premium currently in discussion for the U.K., Australia and Latin America, the Paris-based sales company is edging ever closer to selling out on all major territories around the world.

Territories already secured include Brazil (O2), North America (Blue Fox), Taiwan (Digi Sky Entertainment), China (Beijing Hugoeast), Korea (K Entertainment) and Russia (World Vision).

Senlis will stage a theatrical release in 2023 for “The Pink Cloud.” It has been dubbed and will be released in Germany and Austria) on July 22. France’s Universciné (France) has launched the film as a premium VoD Release, with a specific promotion for what Universciné calls its “exclusive” titles.

Also written by Gerbase, “The Pink Cloud” displays two leading facets of Brazil’s female new wave. One is the appropriation of genre, here a post-apocalypse thriller to tell a character-driven story, as protagonist Giovana is forced by the titular toxic cloud to live years of lockdown with Iago, whom she only met the night before the cloud’s arrival. 

The other is a clear feminist voice seen as Giovana refuses to live the life society expects of her, ending her relationship with Iago, creating her own fantasy life and rebelling ever more against lockdown.

Written in 2017 and shot in 2019 before COVID-19 hit, “The Pink Cloud” has also been taken as a prescient take on the relationship dynamics of lockdown. The “Brazilian chamber piece nails lockdown life with aching, accidental accuracy,” Variety wrote in its upbeat review. 

“This film uses the fanciful motif of ‘pink clouds,’ but it is rich in suggestions for rethinking a reality that has completely changed and the emotions we face in the face of it.,” said Senlis’ Ayano Ikeda, who added: “It also make us think about the lives of the new generation after the pandemic. We believe that as another story of ourselves, it will touch the hearts of Japanese audiences.”

Notably, while many “Pink Cloud” sales deals involve a theatrical element, VOD play is also significant in many. 

“In the context of diminishing theatrical admissions, and with the subject being so timely, we opted for this buzzy type of distribution with the press covering more and more exclusives,” MPM Premium’s Quentin Worthington said about the Universciné release.

MPM Premium introduced “The Pink Cloud” to the international market as a work-in-progress at 2020’s Ventana Sur where it screened alongside two other notable titles from young female filmmakers in Brazil: Flavia Neves’ “Fogaréu,” a searing magic realist putdown of provincial Brazil; and Thais Fujinaga’s “The Joy of Things,” a probing portrait of pressured motherhood. Both played the market’s main Primer Corte competition. 

A Berlinale 2022 Panorama player which was also picked up by MPM Premium, “Fogaréu” will receive a physical market screening at Cannes on May 22. It will be made available 24 hours later as a Catch Up title online.

Variety. https://variety.com/2022/global/markets-festivals/the-pink-cloud-mpm-premium-sales-1235269105/