Hitler having a laugh

German sales company Beta Film has bought the international TV rights of the much praised “El Pallasso I el fuehrer” (The Clown and the Fuhrer). It is a historical drama set under the Third Reich, Clown is a Spanish film produced by Barcelona based Benece and Catalan pubcaster TV3.

The film takes on the imaginative private performance of Charlie Rivel, a celebrated Spanish Clown, in front of Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1944.

The film takes a turn when a Gestapo agent wants to take part in the show, dressed as a clown. Meanwhile, a third clown plans an assassination attempt on the dictator.

Clown is directed by Eduard Cortes( Other Days will come, Nobody’s Life) and is starring Ferran Rane, Jodi Martinez, Manel Barcelo and Pere Arquille.

“‘Clown’ is about our attitudes and ethical commitments in the face of horror and injustice… universal themes,” said David Matamoros, executive producer at Benece.

“We were very positively surprised about the very good acting. (…). We believe that we’ll have positive reactions, especially but not exclusively from free-to-air broadcasters with arthouse slots,” Christian Gockel, Beta’s VP for sales & acquisitions, told Variety.

Clown nabbed several awards, including a jury award at Brazil’s Cinesul Fest, best picture at the San Joaquin Film Festival, Top prize at the Alaska’s Anchorage Festival and an audience award at Spain’s Zoom Igualada.

His next feature will be about the last months of a young man who worked as a performance artist and died under puzzling circumstances.

Popularity: 2% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!