Curzon Film World has acquired the UK distribution rights to Nadav Schirman's documentary
The Green Prince (2014), which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month.
Artificial Eye, Curzon Film Word's sister label, has also acquired the UK distribution rights to acclaimed Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski (
My Summer of Love,
The Woman in the Fifth) latest film
Ida (2013), Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, and Joanna Kulig. Last year, the film won the International Critics' Award (FIPRESCI) at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Artificial Eye have also acquired the distribution rights to John Turturro's latest film,
Fading Gigolo (2013), starring Woody Allen, Sofía Vergara, Sharon Stone, Vanessa Paradis, Liev Schreiber, and Max Casella. The film had its world premiere at last year's edition of the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Green Prince
A Palestinian in Ramallah, Mosab Hassan Yousef grows up angry and ready to fight Israel. Arrested for smuggling guns at the age of 17, he's interrogated by the Shin Bet, Israel's security service, and sent to prison. But shocked by Hamas's ruthless tactics in the prison and the organization's escalating campaign of suicide bombings outside, Mosab agrees to spy for Israel. For him, there is no greater shame. For his Shin Bet handler, Gonen, there is no greater prize: "operating" the oldest son of a founding member of Hamas. (Synopsis courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival).
Ida
Poland 1962. Anna is a young novice on the cusp of taking her vows to become a nun in a Catholic order. She learns from her Mother Superior that she has a living relative who she must visit before she does. Aunt Wanda is a former hard-line Communist state prosecutor and a Jew and so is Anna whose real name is Ida. The two women embark on a voyage of discovery of each other and their past. Ida has to choose between her birth identity and the religion that saved her from being massacred during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Wanda has to confront a decision she made during the War when she chose loyalty to the cause before family. Wanda wants to guide Ida not to repeat her own mistake of putting faith before life and family.
Fading Gigolo
Woody Allen plays as bookseller-turned-pimp to John Turturro's middle-aged neophyte hustler, in actor-writer-director Turturro's inspired left-field comedy. The premise is as inspired as it is absurd, and Turturro carries it off with his own affecting and surprisingly romantic vision of New York City.