Strand Releasing has acquired Rithy Panh’s Un Certain Regard winner following its recent world premiere in Cannes.

The distributor plans an autumn festival release followed by theatrical roll-out in 2014.

The Missing Picture concerns Panh’s search for a “missing picture”, his recreated vision of the atrocities perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from 1975-79. The filmmaker used clay figures interspersed with archival footage and spoken word in a personal retelling of the time.

Jon Gerrans of Strand Releasing brokered the deal with Nicolas Brigaud-Robert of Films Distribution.

“I have been selling foreign movies and documentaries for more than 20 years,” said Brigaud-Robert. “For me, Cambodian director Rithy Panh is one of the greatest contemporary documentary film makers.”

Panh’s previous films include the Duch, Master Of The Forges Of Hell and S21: The Khmer Killing Machine.

“[This] is the very first time that my own story becomes the subject of my film,” said Panh. “Or rather, the story of a 13-year-old child who survived the Red Khmers’ regime. That child lost most of his family and survived in working camps. Today, I am an adult, a filmmaker, and I want to show these four horrible years, and the ones that preceded them – the old world, a world of music, filled with warmth, and family.

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