‘Sabaya’ Filmmakers Reject Claim They Did Not Obtain Consent Of Yazidi Sex Slaves Depicted In Award-Winning Doc

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed Bangladeshi director Rubaiyat Hossain, known for her powerful women-centric films, has a new project participating in the Berlinale Co-Production Market and is launching a female filmmaker grant.Her Berlinale co-production market project, “The Difficult Bride,” follows Novera, a bride-to-be in present-day Dhaka who is in love with the groom and the idea of a fairytale wedding, but secretly struggles with her body, which does not seem to comply with the wedding rituals. She makes continuous trips to the beauty salon and uses home remedies to “cure” her body.

Christopher Vourlias Germany’s Sola Media has closed a wave of international sales for the animated feature “Finnick,” produced by Riki Group, which will be released by Sony Pictures Russia in Russia and CIS on March 24.The CGI-animated comedy follows the adventures of 13-year-old Christine, who befriends the young prankster Finnick – one of the furry and usually invisible beings known as Finns. The odd couple has to team up as detectives to solve the mysterious events happening in their city.The Stuttgart-based sales agency has inked deals with Eagle Pictures (Italy), Independent Films (Benelux), Koch Films (German/Austria/Switzerland), Vertigo Releasing (U.K.), Tanweer (Greece), Selmer Media (Scandinavia), Myndform (Iceland), Rialto (Australia and New Zealand), and Black Sheep Films (South Africa), and holds exclusive distribution rights in multiple additional territories.

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Manori Ravindran International EditorMia Wasikowska will take on the lead role in “Little Joe” director Jessica Hausner’s cult thriller “Club Zero,” Variety can reveal.The Australian actor will portray an unusual schoolteacher in Hausner’s second English-language film, which begins shooting in the U.K. and Austria in July.Wasikowska was most recently seen in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Cannes-premiering film “Bergman Island.”In “Club Zero,” Wasikowska’s teacher takes a job at an elite school and forms a strong bond with five students — a relationship that eventually takes a dangerous turn.Discussing the film at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event last year, Hausner described the film as “a lot about eating,” relating to eating disorders and “eating behaviors.” This will be Hausner’s sixth feature.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Roberta Torre, known for campy Mafia musical “Tano to Die For” and other anarchic pics, is making “Le Favolose,” about a group of transgender women who reunite after 20 years to commemorate a dead friend and do right by her after her identity has been violated.“Le Favolose,” which translates as “The Fabulous Ones,” is being produced by Donatella Palermo, who is at the Berlinale with auteur Paolo Taviani’s competition entry “Leonora Addio.”Palermo, who has a longstanding rapport with Torre, is the Italian producer behind two Berlin Golden Bear winners: the Taviani brothers’ “Caesar Must Die” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea.” “When a person decides to face the [gender] transition from man to woman it can be a very painful process in several different ways: social, physical, etc.,” said Palermo, who notes that “when a trans dies, most of the time their body is returned to their families.” Torre’s new pic is based on a real-life story of Antonia, one of the “Fabulous Ones,” who is buried by her family dressed as a man under her original name, Giampaolo, amid the indifference of most.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorArna Media, the Russian distribution company run by Nadezda Motina, has secured the rights to “Brother and Sister,” “The Tank,” “Little Allan – The Human Antenna” and “The Colors of Fire” for its theatrical pipeline. Arnaud Desplechin’s family-drama “Brother and Sister” stars Marion Cotillard, Melvil Poupaud and Golshifteh Farahani. Cotillard and Poupaud play the titular siblings who, following the death of their parents, reunite after decades of silence.

Jamie Lang After a banner 2021 for high-end genre films, industry vets are hopeful that the fantastic can resurrect the corpse of pre-COVID theatrical distribution.As bolts of lightning reanimated the body of Frankenstein’s monster, Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” which turned heads when it took the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Sundance Grand Jury prize-winner “Nanny,” a supernatural tale from director Nikyatu Jusu, have revitalized the festival scene.While “Nanny” may have been the jewel in the genre crown at Sundance, the influence that genre cinema held over 2022’s first major festival was wide-ranging and undeniable. Chloe Okuno’s psychological thriller “Watcher” impressed — segueing into several sales deals — as did Hanna Bergholm’s psycho-horror feature “Hatching,” sold by Wild Bunch and Charades-sold Spanish standout “Piggy,” the follow-up to Carlota Pereda’s 2019 Spanish Academy Award-winner “Cerdita.” Among genre titles at Berlin this year are Dario Argento’s serial killer thriller “Dark Glasses” in the Berlinale Special section, while Bertrand Bonello’s subconscious voyage “Coma” and Peter Strickland’s gory “Flux Gourmet” (pictured above) feature in Encounters.

Amidst family drama piled miles high, Travis Scott looks as chilled out as ever; but then again, maybe it’s just new dad exhaustion! In the first photos of the rapper since the birth of his second child with wife Kylie Jenner, the rapper wore a comfortable outfit and statement hoodie as he arrived at the Fanatic Super Bowl party on Feb. 12. Travis and Kylie welcomed a son, Wolf Webster, on Feb. 2nd.

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Anna Sorokin aka Anna Delvey, the fake German heiress, was paid a hefty sum of money from Netflix for her story in a Shonda Rhimes produced series titled, . 

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Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Sabaya” producer Antonio Russo Merenda has responded to a bombshell article published on Monday in The New York Times claiming that many Yazidi women portrayed in the Sundance prize-winning documentary never agreed to be in the film.Merenda issued a statement on Thursday evening saying that he and director Hogir Hirori “received written, verbal or filmed consent from everyone who appears” in “Sabaya,” as well as from the legal guardian of the young girl who is featured in the film.Merenda also provided statements from one of the main female protagonista of “Sabaya,” as well as from a Syrian Kurdish filmmaker who worked with Hirori.