The Match Factory will handle international sales on Christian Petzold's new feature Jerichow which begins shooting in the east German town of Wittenberge, the Prignitz region and along the Elbe from today.

It is the sales agent's second Petzold film after his 2007 competition film Yella and marks the director's seventh collaboration with the Berlin-based production outfit Schramm Film. Piffl Medien again handles German theatrical distribution.

Jerichow stars Nina Hoss (in her fourth Petzold feature after Something To Remind Me, Wolfsburg and Yella where she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress last year), Andre Hennicke, Benno Fuermann, and Hilmi Soezer.

The story is about two people (Fuermann and Hoss) who fall in love and think they can only have a future together if they murder the woman's husband (Hennicke).

Speaking to ScreenDaily.com, Petzold explained that he see sees a connection between the latest film and Something To Remind Me and Wolfsburg: 'in all three, it is about crime, passion and deep emotions, and deadly sins like revenge and greed.'

'I have the feeling that Christian is drawing the essence out of all of his previous works and letting everything flow into Jerichow,' adds producer Florian Koerner von Gustorf. 'As in film noir, the characters here are driven by something that slips out of their grasp and they no longer have under their control. From a certain point onwards, they are no longer prepared to face up to the question of guilt and both believe that they have the right to behave the way they do.

'What is really interesting about Jerichow is that the characters say: 'We must get rid of someone so that our life is better, we take what we believe we are entitled to',' von Gustorf says.

Meanwhile, another project on The Match Factory's sales slate will commence principal photography today: Joergen Bergmark's directorial debut Rational Solution, which won the Arte France Cinema Award at this year's Rotterdam CineMart, prodced by Sweden's Hepp Film with Finland's Blind Spot Pictures and Germany's Pandora Film, with co-financing from broadcasters YLE and SVT.

The tragicomedy focuses on an active church member who suddenly falls in love with his best friend's wife and comes up with a rational solution: all concerned should try to live together in his house.

Nordisk Film will distribute in Sweden, while Pandora's distribution arm will handle the German theatrical release.

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