Zbanic’s Berlin competition entry has been sold to 19 territories; local tour support strong home market release.

The Match Factory has sold rights to Jasmila Zbanic’s Berlin competition entry On The Path (Na Patu) to 19 territories.

The territories covered include Benelux (Cinemien);  Baltic states and the CIS (Maywin Media); Colombia (Cineplex); Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms); Denmark (Ost For Paradis); France (Diaphana Distribution); Germany (Neue Visionen Filmverleih); Israel (Lev Films); Italy (Fandango); Mexico (Cine Video y TV);  Norway (Fidalgo);  Poland (AP Manana); Portugal (Atalanta Filmes); South Korea (Sejong Communications); Spain (Golem Distribucion); Switzerland (Trigon-Film) and Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films).

The sales company hope to continue sales at the forthcoming Cannes Film Festival,  where it is planning to screen the film to potential buyers.

The film opened simultaneously in Bosnia and Croatia and has seen strong admissions over the four weeks since its release. It has sold 12,141 tickets on five screens in Croatia and 40,550 in Bosnia, where is it on eight prints.

Zbanic’s previous film Grbavica sold 160,000 tickets in its home territory, scoring the highest box office in Bosnia’s history.

Due to the small number of screens in both countries, the film’s co-producers Bosnia’s Deblokada and Croatian company Ziva Produkcija have organised screenings at alternative venues, such as hotels and sports centre, which as increased admissions by 4,000.

The tour is supported by its Zbanic, producer Damir Ibrahimovic and lead actors Zrinka Cvitesic and Leon Lucev, who have visited seven towns to date and will go to a further 14 before the summer.

 “Our goal is too reach as many cinephiles as possible and to encourage others to see the film the way it’s supposed to be seen- in a theatre,” says Lucev, who also co-produced the film through his outfit Ziva.

Austria’s Coop99 and Germany’s Pandora were also co-producers on the film.

On The Path will open the Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz on April 20 and the Open Doek International Film Festival in Turnhout, Belgium, on April 23.

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