Lightdox Takes Sahara Documentary Ahead of Zurich Premiere
Lightdox has acquired world sales rights to the documentary My Home of Wind and Sand on the eve of its first public screening, Deadline reported on 28 September.
The deal gives the Swiss company the job of selling the film to cinemas, broadcasters and streamers around the world. Sales rights of this kind are usually secured before a festival launch, when buyer interest is highest. The film was set for its world premiere, its very first screening anywhere, on Tuesday at the Zurich Film Festival.
The documentary is a portrait of Najla Mohamed Lamin, a women's rights, human rights and climate activist. She was born in a Sahrawi refugee camp in Algeria and has led a peaceful campaign supporting Western Sahara's right to self-determination, according to the same report.
Director Patrick Wally spent eleven years following Lamin to make the film. That long shoot spans her activism at home and abroad. The Zurich Film Festival lists Wally as attending the screening in person, Zurich Film Festival notes.
The premiere has an added high-profile name. Greta Thunberg visited the Sahrawi refugee camps last year and ran a climate change workshop with Lamin. Thunberg was expected to attend the Tuesday premiere and join Lamin for a post-screening conversation.
Lightdox is led by CEO Anna Berthollet. Festival premieres of this type often decide the next steps for a documentary, from further festival invitations to cinema and streaming deals.
What makes this stand out is the timeline. Eleven years of filming, a festival launch, and a sales deal landing in the same week. For audiences in Zurich, the first showing will also be a first chance to see Lamin and Thunberg discuss the issues together in public.
