MetFilm Distribution acquires Claude Barras’s stop-motion animation ‘Savages’ for UK-Ireland theatrical distribution

EXCLUSIVE: MetFilm Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to Claude Barras’s Savages, and has scheduled a wide theatrical release for August 1 this summer.

Savages debuted as a Special Screening at Cannes last year, before a festival run that included Annecy, Locarno and BFI London Film Festival.

Set in Borneo, it follows the adventures of Kéria, who takes in a baby orangutan rescued from the palm oil plantation where her father works; and with her cousin Selaï, battles against the planned destruction of their ancestral home in the rainforest.

The film is a Swiss-French-Belgian co-production by Nadasdy Film with Haut et Court and Brussels-based Studio Panique!. Gebeka International and Anton handle international sales.

The film is a second feature for Swiss filmmaker Barras, after 2016’s My Life as a Courgette, which debuted at Cannes and went on to an Oscar nomination for best animated feature.

Savages joins a MetFilm slate that includes Sundance-winning documentary A New Kind Of Wilderness; Daisy-May Hudson’s fiction feature debut Lollipop; Toronto drama The Courageous; and Italian box office hit The Tasters.

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