Music Box Films has acquired all US rights to Marco Amenta’s The Sicilian Girl (pictured), based on the story of Rita Atria, who testified against the Mafia after her father and brother were murdered.

The film stars Sicilian native Veronica D’Agostino as Rita and Gérard Jugnot as the chief prosecutor of Palermo. Jugnot’s character is based on the anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who takes Rita’s confession and becomes her friend and protector. Music Box has scheduled a late spring-early summer 2010 theatrical release.

Amenta has directed several documentaries about the Sicilian Mafia including the 1997 documentary about Atria, One Girl Against The Mafia: Diary Of A Sicilian Rebel.

Music Box Films president William Schopf negotiated the deal with Yohann Comte of Roissy Films. Roissy, a division of Luc Besson’s Europa Corp, co-produced the film with R&C Produzioni and Eurofilm. Music Box and Roissy previously worked together on the 2009 Cesar winner Seraphine.

“The Sicilian Girl is an inspiring story of personal courage and a new take on the Mafia that American audiences raised on The Godfather won’t fail to respond to,” Schopf said.

The Sicilian Girl had its US premiere earlier this year in New York at the Film Society Of Lincoln Center’s annual New Italian Cinema series.

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