Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, announced today the acquisition of North American rights to the bizarro domestic thriller Borgman from this year's Cannes Film Festival. Directed by award-winning auteur Alex van Warmerdam's (Grimm, Abel), Borgman is the first Dutch film in Cannes competition in almost 40 years. A US theatrical and VOD/digital release is planned for 2014 and Films We Like in Toronto will handle Canadian distribution. US Fans who enroll in the "Drafthouse Alliance" subscription program can guarantee pre-order for the film here: drafthousefilms.com/alliance.
Like Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth and Michael Haneke's Funny Games, Borgman is an allegorical tale exploring the nature of evil in unexpected places. A vagrant enters the lives of an upper-class family, igniting a descent from darkly comic dream to maddening psychological nightmare. "I wanted to show evil through the abnormal behaviour of normal people," says Warmerdam at the film's Cannes press conference, "the kind that you can come across in the street."
Borgman shocked and delighted Cannes audiences and has been praised as "one of the rare movies that manages to find something entirely new to say," (The Wrap). For Jessica Kiang at The Playlist, the film "never ceases to twist, turn and surprise... one of the biggest unexpected pleasures the festival has thus far provided."
"Maybe once a year, I am deluged after a premiere with texts and emails to the effect of 'this is such a Drafthouse movie,'" says Drafthouse Films founder and CEO Tim League, "its strange, disturbing, hysterical and utterly unique. Borgman is THE quintessential Drafthouse film of Cannes. We can't wait to share it with audiences in North America."
On completing the deal Winnie Lau of Fortissimo Films commented, "we could not be more passionate about Borgman and the incredibly talented creative team behind it, led by the visionary Alex van Warmerdam and producing partner Marc van Warmerdam. We are thrilled to find, in Drafthouse Films, a perfect home for the film in North America. We know they are the ideal team to maximize its potential in that market."
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