Sol Bondy’s Berlin-based One Two Films has boarded Iranian helmer Rafi Pitts’ latest film, “Random Star Suicide,” produced by French shingle Les Films du Worso and set to shoot next year.
After 2016’s “Soy Nero,” Pitts again examines Americans living on the margins of society in a story that follows a young black man and a working-class veteran whose lives and destinies cross.
One Two Films is continuing its focus on international and English-language productions as it recalibrates following the recent exit of longtime partner Jamila Wenske. The company has a new office in Berlin and a slew of projects in the works as it seeks to broaden its reach as an international co-producer specialized in Germany’s soft money incentives.
One Two Films partnered with Denmark’s Profile Pictures on Grimur Hakonarson’s Icelandic drama “The County,” which premieres in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section, and the companies are re-teaming on an untitled Farsi-language feature film project by Copenhagen-based Iranian director Ali Abbasi (“Border”). The film, which is backed by ZDF/Arte and German distributor Alamode, is shooting next year.
Bondy is also developing an original scripted series, tentatively titled “Animal Traffic,” about the illegal wildlife trade. The project is based on Rachel Nuwer’s book “Poached” and also inspired by the 1987 British TV documentary “Animal Traffic,” produced and directed by Bondy’s father, Arpad Bondy, and Ron Orders for Channel 4. Penning the series are Jonathan Stewart, Jake Crane and Julia Langhof.
The company is likewise co-producing the English-language debut of Icelandic director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson (“Under the Tree”) with Iceland’s Netop Films (“The County”).
Also in the works are two English-language projects with Canadian producer Mike MacMillan: “Nightlife,” a Berlin-set comedy directed by Dutch helmer Michiel ten Horn, and a “I Will Not Go Quietly,” a father-daughter drama set in Switzerland, which the producers are presenting at Toronto’s Finance Forum this year.
One Two Films’ forthcoming productions include Vadim Perelman’s wartime drama “Persian Lessons,” set for release early next year; Tom Shoval’s “Shake Your Cares Away,” executive produced by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and currently shooting in Israel; and Elan Gamaker’s “The Night Outside,” a South African supernatural thriller backed by the Berlin Film Festival’s World Cinema Fund and produced by One Two Films’ Fred Burle, which is shooting in September and October.
