Fandango Acquires Rescue Ahead of Zurich Premiere
Fandango Distribution has acquired all rights, including theatrical release, to Rescue, director Sine Plambech's documentary about a Yemeni mother held in Libya after a Mediterranean rescue operation, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter on 28 September. The deal was announced ahead of the film's European premiere.
Rescue had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, known as TIFF. It will have its European premiere in the Now/Future section of the 22nd Zurich Film Festival. Plambech will also serve as president of the festival's documentary competition jury.
The film follows Roro, a Yemeni mother separated from her husband Hani during a rescue operation at sea. Libyan militiamen intervened in the operation and abducted Roro with her two young children, according to the Zurich Film Festival. She was then held in captivity in Libya. The film stays with Hani for months as he tries to reunite his family.
It was filmed aboard the Geo Barents, the search and rescue vessel operated by Doctors Without Borders. Plambech wrote the film with Janus Metz. Andreas Dalsgaard, Sofie Husum Johannesen and Tereza Šimíková produced it for Elk Film.
It runs 80 minutes. The languages are Arabic, English and French with English subtitles. Troels N'koya Jensen was the cinematographer, Per K. Kirkegaard and Marion Tuor edited the film, and Uno Helmersson composed the music.
On the business side, Radio Télévision Suisse, the Swiss public broadcaster known as RTS, has joined as a broadcaster. DR, VPRO, SVT and NRK are pre-sale partners, meaning broadcasters that put money into a film before it is completed. Autlook Filmsales is handling worldwide sales, the licensing of screening rights country by country, and negotiated the Fandango and RTS deals, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Plambech is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Her earlier documentary Heartbound screened at TIFF in 2018, according to TIFF. At Zurich this year she serves alongside filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga, who is also named as a jury president.
What makes this stand out is the double role. Plambech arrives in Zurich to judge documentaries while presenting her own latest work to a European audience for the first time.
