South Korean producer Barunson E&A is to invest in upcoming Indonesian horror film Respati and has secured worldwide sales rights to the feature ahead of the European Film Market (EFM).
It marks the second investment in a non-Korean title by the company since expanding into international co-production, financing and sales in October 2022. The first was Indonesian action feature 13 Bombs, produced by Jakarta-based Visinema, which screened at Rotterdam earlier this week.
Barunson E&A, which is known as the producer of Oscar-winner Parasite and Kim Je-woon’s black comedy Cobweb, will begin pre-sales of Respati at the EFM, which begins on February 15.
The horror film is produced by Base Entertainment and directed by Sidharta Tata, whose feature debut Waktu Maghrib ranked as the fifth biggest title at the Indonesian box office in 2023. His most recent film, Ali Topan, premiered at Busan and will be released in Indonesia on February 14.
Respati tells the story of a teenager with the ability to enter other people’s dreams, where he witnesses a murderous dark spirit and quickly connects the killings to mysterious deaths in the real world. The film is in post-production and is aiming for a theatrical release in May.
Base Entertainment’s credits include Joko Anwar’s mystery horror Impetigore, which played at Sundance in 2020; Netflix original series Cigarette Girl; and Trese, which was Netflix’s first original anime series for Southeast Asia in 2021.
In a statement, Barunson E&A said it would continue to focus on international co-production and film finance. Sylvie Kim, head of international business unit of Barunson E&A, said the company was seeking “projects that have unique concepts produced by a strong creative team”.
“We believe Respati is a horror piece that has great potential to be received well by the audience not only in Indonesia, but around the world,” she added.
At the EFM, Barunson E&A will also begin pre-sales of 3D animation Yumi’s Cells; adventure comedy Amazon Bullseye, starring Ryu Seung-ryong of Extreme Job; and daring comedy Forbidden Fairytale.
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