Netflix nabs English-speaking rights to 'Dovlatov'

PanARMENIAN.Net - Netflix has scored its first pickup of this year's Berlin International Film Festival, nabbing all English-speaking rights to Alexey German Jr.'s "Dovlatov", The Hollywood Reporter says.

The picture tells about several days from the life of Russian novelist Sergei Dovlatov. Shot in the genre of biographical melodrama, the film centers on the four days in 1971 that the writer with Armenian roots spent in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).

Netflix acquired rights for North America, the U.K., Australia/New Zealand and Scandinavia for the period drama following its world premiere at the Berlinale.

Alpha Violet, which is handling world sales on "Dovlatov", also scored deals for 13 other territories. Among the deals closed are ones for France (Paradis Films), Italy (Satine Film), Spain (Abordar), Portugal (Leopardo Filmes) and Brazil (Imovision).

Dovlatov, who was unable to publish under the Soviet regime, emigrated to New York. But his real fame came after his death, when his novels became huge best-sellers in post-Soviet Russia.

The film also picked up a Silver Bear in Berlin on Saturday night, winning the prize for outstanding artistic contribution for Elena Okopnaya's costume design, which recreates November 1971 in Leningrad.