Totem Films, under the banner of Totem Docs, has boarded sales on French director Jean-Armand Bougrelle’s upcoming feature Bound, exploring the ancient Japanese art of rope bondage, known as Shibari or Kinbaku.

The Paris-based company, which is launching the title during AFM Online this week, has released an exclusive first trailer for the work (see above).

The documentary focuses on how women in Japan have increasingly taken on the role of the dominant person tying the ropes, even if the practice is still more commonly associated with the image of a man tying a woman.

Japan-based filmmaker Bougrelle has gained unprecedented access to female dominators as well as the women who gain pleasure from being tied-up. All speak candidly about their love of the practice, as a tool to create art, heal or communicate.

“Images of Shibari often show women who have been transformed into eroticised objects by and for men. Here, we meet women who are mistresses of their desires, whether it is to dominate or be submissive,” commented Totem.

Totem Films launched its new documentary label last June, with a focus on works exploring contemporary battles around identity and representation.

Titles on its debut slate included the in-house adaptation of Franco-American writer and critic Iris Brey’s hard-hitting work The Female Gaze, which is in development, as well as Heather Kessinger’s completed feature The Most Fearless, about a Bangladeshi girl’s quest to overcome poverty and prejudice to become a high-level competitive surfer.

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