08 feb 2017 mk2 films and Protagonist Pictures join forces to sell new Pawel Pawlikowski film COLD WAR

mk2 films and Protagonist Pictures have teamed up to handle worldwide sales on Cold War, the new film from Academy award-winning writer/director Paweł Pawlikowski which has begun production in Poland. The film will be introduced to buyers at EFM in Berlin, and is due for completion in 2018.

Pawlikowski’s most recent film Ida was a global success, packing out arthouses and winning the Oscar and BAFTA for best foreign language film as well as three European Film Awards including best European film, director and screenplay. His other key credits include My Summer Of Love and Last Resort.

Cold War is a passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatally mismatched and yet fatefully condemned to each other. Set against the background of the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, the film depicts an impossible love story in impossible times.

The film is a Polish/French/UK co-production, and is written by Pawlikowski in both Polish and French languages. The director’s long time partners Tanya Seghatchian (My Summer of Love) of Apocalypso Pictures and Ewa Puszczyńska (Ida) from Piotr Dzięciol’s Opus Film (Poland) are producing, along with France’s MK Productions.

The film is being financed by the Polish Film Institute, MK Productions, Opus Film, CNC – Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, Arte France Cinéma, Film4, the BFI with National Lottery funding, and Protagonist Pictures. UK rights are with Curzon Artifical Eye.

Cold War stars Tomasz Kot and Joanna Kulig, alongside Agata Kulesza from Ida.

The film marks the first collaboration between MK2, the French production, finance, sales and exhibition company which has a legacy of working with the world’s greatest directors, and Protagonist, the London-based production, finance and sales outfit which has made its name selling strong authorial visions.

“We are so excited to be working in tandem with our friends at MK2, a company we have long admired, and there is no better kickoff than this extraordinary new project from Paweł Pawlikowski,” said Protagonist CEO Mike Goodridge. “We believe that Paweł is one of contemporary cinema’s great visionaries and we couldn’t be more proud to be involved in Cold War.”

“Cold War is one of the most exciting projects that we’ve had the opportunity to work on in recent years, and this experience is further enhanced by our partnership with Protagonist, which has such a strong and bold line up and with whom we share a vision of the film business. It would be an understatement to say that we are proud to be working on this film with them”, added MK2 CEO Nathanaël Karmitz.