A new Berlin-based sales company M-Appeal launched this week with a slate comprising threefilms in the Rotterdam line-up and another five titles to be presented at the forthcoming European Film Market (EFM).

The company has been established by Maren Kroymann, formerly head of acquisitions at the German sales agent mdc international, with Artur Brzozowski and Birgit Haugg as sales managers. Kroymann's former mdc colleague Marta Lamperova is acting as a consultant to the fledgling outfit.

The three titles being presented at Rotterdam are:

* Tiger Award competition film Tale 52 by Greek director Alexis Alexiou, which has its world premiere in a public screening on Tuesday evening (Jan 29).

* Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski's Venice Days title Tricks which received the Europa Cinemas label and Laterna Magica Award last year.

* Ben van Lieshout's second feature The Muse - about a Monica Vitti doppelganger becoming the substitute object of affection for an introvert man with writer's block (screening in the Dutch Showcase).

Meanwhile, M-Appeal also has another five titles which it is selling at the EFM. These include Rosa Praunheim's documentary Dead Gays - Living Lesbians which is screening as a world premiere in the Panorama Dokumente strand, and Lars Henning Jung's Act Of Violence, which was awarded the best newcomer actress prize at the Max Ophuels Preis Film Festival this month.

M-Appeal is also selling political thriller Kill Them All, directed by Uruguay's Esteban Schroeder which screened in competition at San Sebastian last year; sci-fi comedy Three Minutes from Argentina's Diego Lublinsky which screened in competition at Sitges, and Jacob's Gate from Sandrina Andic, which was shown at last year's International Women's Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro.

According to Kroymann, M-Appeal intends to work with both young and experienced filmmakers and is 'in search of edgy cinema, quality films as well as crossing border cinema, with a strong focus on the international market.'

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