“Marshland” Goya-winning noir sells worldwide

PanARMENIAN.Net - It’s not only the Spanish Academy that is sold on “Marshland”. Claiming 10 Goyas Feb. 7 in Madrid – among them, pic, director, original screenplay – Alberto Rodriguez’s early 1980s noirish serial killer thriller, set in the wetlands outside Seville, has almost sold out rights around the world for Film Factory Entertainment, Variety reports.

Joining France’s Le Pacte, a deal announced by Variety at September’s San Sebastian festival, “Marshland” has now closed the U.K. (Altitude), Germany (Koch Media), Japan (Klockworx), Italy (Movies Inspired), Australia/New Zealand (Vendetta), and Latin American pay TV (Fox).

Other deals include Switzerland (Praesens), Greece (Weirdwave), ex-Yugoslavia (MCF), Turkey (Sinema TV), Portugal (Zon Lusomundo), Canada (AZ Films), Hungary (MTVA), Czech Republic/Slovakia (Vapet), Middle East (SRND), Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic (Palmera) and airlines (Encore).

On the U.S, Film Factory is entering “the final straits of negotiation, and will announce a deal shortly,” said the company’s Vicente Canales.

Made in a still ideologically riven country, Spanish films still too often portray saints and out-and-out villains. “Marshland” is one of Spain’s earliest films to take a far more realistic view of human psychology, suggesting that a cop who committed terrible crimes under Franco is also capable of heroism – and that he will never be brought to a court of law for his past crimes. That nuanced vision receives an equally nuanced performance from Javier Gutierrez, which merited a best actor Goya.