Japanese drama The Longing has secured a sales agent ahead of its world premiere here in Panorama.
Belgium’s Axxon Media has landed sales rights to the social drama, directed and co-written by Toshizo Fujiwara, which will have its first public screening at the Zoo Palast on Wednesday (February 19).
The story centres on a couple who run a restaurant and employ ex-youth offenders to help support their rehabilitation. A young man is hired and becomes infatuated with a fellow former juvenile detainee, gradually losing himself as he grows isolated at the restaurant.
Produced by Toshizo Produce and based on Fujiwara’s play of the same name, the cast is led by young actor Daiki Ido and includes the director in a supporting role. Fujiwara is better known as an actor in features such as Takeshi Kitano’s A Scene At The Sea and Fred Schepisi’s Mr. Baseball. His previous feature as a director was 2014’s The Sky And Beyond.
Axxon Media has previously handled titles such as Happiness by Askar Uzabayev, which won the Panorama audience award at the Berlinale in 2022. Its EFM slate also include The Ants by Morocco’s Yassine Fennane and French documentary Remember The Sunflowers by Sandrine Mercier and Juan Hidalgo.
“Films from Asia are of great interest to younger generations,” said Axxon CEO Gilles Duffaut. “This is why we are currently focused on films from Japan and Korea, and are in talks now with French distributors for The Longing.”
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