Paris-based sales outfit Premium Films and its feature arm MPM Premium have picked up international sales rights to The Riverbank (A Margem do Rio), a Brazilian-German co-production set to world premiere in the international competition at the Locarno Film Festival on August 11. The Swiss festival runs August 5–15. (Variety)

The film is the feature directorial debut of Matheus Farias and Enock Carvalho, professional and life partners for 13 years. Their short Inabitável screened at Sundance five years ago. Farias also won a Platino Award for his editing work on an Oscar-nominated picture, and he has cited Mati Diop's Atlantics and Ali Abbasi's Border as tonal and visual references for the new film. (Variety)

Set in Recife, Brazil, The Riverbank follows Izaquiel, a young cleaner played by Caique Copque, whose path crosses with Jeremias, a magnetic fisherman played by Ítalo Martins. The film runs 117 minutes, in Portuguese, in colour, screening from a DCP 2K file at Locarno's GranRex venue, with a 20-minute Q&A scheduled. (Locarno Film Festival)

The cast also includes Robério Diógenes, Kaiony Venâncio and Carlos Francisco — three actors who appear in Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent. That shared talent pool places the debut alongside a recognisable strand of contemporary Brazilian cinema emerging from Recife. (Variety)

The Riverbank presents a criticism of ties between evangelical churches and politics in Brazil. That subject lands with particular weight as the country heads toward a presidential election in October 2026. (Variety)

Jean-Charles Mille, general manager of Premium Films and MPM Premium, will oversee sales from Locarno. International sales rights — the ability to license the film to distributors territory by territory across the world — give the film a route to screens far beyond its home market. For a first feature from directors without a prior feature credit, a competition slot at Locarno and a sales agent already attached is the kind of early-market positioning that can shape a film's trajectory well before any general release. (Variety)

The project previously carried the working title Down by the River. (Cineuropa)