HanWay takes on sales for Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir

Roman Polanski: A  Film Memoir has been picked up for world sales by London-based HanWay Films.

The documentary directed by Laurent Bouzereau features the Polish director talks frankly about everything from his childhood in Nazi-occupied Poland to the sexual assault case that led him to flee the US in the late 1970s. The documentary (on HanWay’s EFM slate) premiered to some acclaim at the Zurich Film Festival in September 2011.

The project was brought to HanWay by ICM’s Jeff Berg and producer Andrew Braunsberg. Braunsberg conducts the on-screen interview with Polanski, which was shot while the director was under house arrest in Gstaad following his attendance at the 2009 Zurich Film Festival.

HanWay is handling all rights excluding North America, France, Germany and Italy.

The acquisition was confirmed by Fabien Westerhoff, HanWay’s Director of Sales & Distribution - Broadcast, Home Entertainment, Theatrical Media.

Austrian-based producer Braunsberg worked with Polanski on several of his films from the 1970s, among them Macbeth and The Tenant. Critics have commented on how openly and emotionally Polanski responds to Braunsberg’s questions.

Roman Polanski - A Film Memoir is an Andrew Braunsberg production, executive produced by Timothy Burrill and shot by Pawel Edelmann. Charlie Woebcken, Christoph Fisser and Henning Molfenter of Studio Babelsberg and Luca Barbareschi are co-producers.

The Polanski doc, which will have a market screening in Berlin, joins such other titles as Mark Cousins’ The Story Of Film and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel on HanWay’s growing slate of upscale docs aimed at both theatrical and TV buyers.