EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based The Party Film Sales has acquired international sales rights for Dutch director Sven Bresser’s first feature Reedland ahead of its premiere in competition in Cannes Critics’ Week in May.
The film tells the story of reed cutter Johan who discovers the lifeless body of a girl on his land and is overcome by an ambiguous sense of guilt. While he takes care of his granddaughter, he sets out on a quest to track down evil. But darkness can thrive in unexpected places.
Non-professional actor Gerrit Knobbe makes his big screen debut as Johan, alongside young newcomer Loïs Reinders.
The drama is among 11 first and second feature films, seven in competition, selected out of 1,000 submitted films for the upcoming edition of Cannes Critics’ Week, running from May 14 to 22.
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Reedland is the first feature by a Dutch director to premiere in Critics’ Week since Karim Traïdia’s The Polish Bride in 1998, and the first Dutch-language feature by a Dutch director to play anywhere on the Croisette since Alex Van Warmerdan’s Borgman in 2013.
The Critics’ Weeks selection also marks a significant milestone for Bresser, whose Corsica-shot short film The Summer and All The Rest debuted in Venice Horizons and TIFF in 2018, and went on to receive multiple national and international awards. Reedland is set in the same rural landscape where Bresser grew up.
Reedland is produced by Marleen Slot at Amsterdam based Viking Film, whose recent credits include co-producing Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro’s Berlinale Jury Prize winner The Blue Trail and producing Sophie Hyde’s Sundance title Jimpa, starring Olivia Colman and John Lithgow.
Slot is joined on the production by coproducers Dries Phlypo for A Private View and broadcaster VPRO. The film will be released in France by The Jokers.
“We are absolutely thrilled to accompany Reedland and can’t wait to share it with our buyers, but also with everyone else around us” said Estelle de Araujo and Samuel Blanc from The Party Film Sales.
“It’s a haunting, complex, mysterious and fascinating film, that we’d want to watch over and over to discover its many layers” they continued. “It is extremely impressive how Sven’s filmmaking confidence and maturity are already those of an accomplished filmmaker, and how he puts them at the service of unsettling us continuously while exploring in depth the human soul and our relationships to others, modernity, and the Living.”
The Party Film Sales, which specializes in both fiction and documentary projects, has built a reputation for handling bold, thought-provoking films.
Its recent titles include 2025 Berlinale title We Believe You by Arnaud Dufeys and Charlotte Devillers, which clinched a Special Mention in the Perspectives section; Cannes 2024 Un Certain Regard opener When The Light Breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson and Cannes 2023 Golden Eye winner and 2024 Oscar nominee Four Daughters by Kaouther Ben Hania.
Reedland was produced with the support of the Netherlands Filmfund and Netherlands Production Incentive, Eurimages, VAF, Belgian Taxshelter, BNP Paribas Fortis Film Finance, VPRO and CoBO.
The post The Party Film Sales Boards Cannes Critics’ Week Title ‘Reedland’ As Drama Breaks Hiatus For Dutch-Language Features On Croisette appeared first on Deadline.
