December 12 2011

Picturehouse Entertainment, the recently established distribution arm of City Screen/Picturehouse Cinemas, announced today that they have acquired UK rights to Radu Mihaileanu’s Cannes competition title THE SOURCE from EuropaCorp. Picturehouse Entertainment will release the film on 18 May next year.

December 12 2011: Picturehouse Entertainment, the recently established distribution arm of City Screen/Picturehouse Cinemas, announced today that they have acquired UK rights to Radu Mihaileanu’s Cannes competition title THE SOURCE from EuropaCorp. Picturehouse Entertainment will release the film on 18 May next year. Following his delightful 2009 hit THE CONCERT, director Radu Mihaileanu returns with his most ambitious film to date. Set in a remote African village, THE SOURCE focuses on the plight of women in the small community, forced to fetch water from a high mountain spring in the blazing heat.

After a tragedy strikes, feisty young bride Leila (rising star Leila Bekhti) encourages the women to launch a love strike against their husbands – they will get no more sex until the men pipe running water into the village. The ensuing battle of the sexes is by turns funny, moving and ultimately uplifting as Mihaileanu’s film deftly explores issues of women’s place in Muslim society, the collision between old worlds and new, and the universal theme of gender division. Aside from Leila Bekhti, the film stars Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass, and Saleh Bakri. Clare Binns, Director Programming and Acquisitions said, “"Following the success of his first film, The Concert, Mihaileanu brings us this funny and beguiling story about female emancipation in North Africa. I think the film's emotional warmth and beautiful setting will really strike a chord with audiences in the UK." City Screen is the owner and operator of Picturehouse Cinemas, Britain’s largest circuit of independent cinemas.

Formed in 1989 to challenge the modern multiplex, City Screen provides cinemas in city centre locations to serve local communities and offer a broader range of films. City Screen now owns and operates 20 cinemas, with their latest, the Hackney Picturehouse, having opened last month. City Screen also programmes for an additional 36 venues independently operated throughout the UK. The company uses over 18 years’ experience in tailoring diverse and commercially successful programmes spanning arthouse and independent features, world cinema and quality mainstream titles as well as short films and touring seasons.

City Screen prides itself on being at the forefront of digital cinema and other business and technical developments, such as pioneering a wide variety of live cinecast events, including the screening of theatre from the National Theatre, opera from the New York Metropolitan Opera and Royal Opera House, a live performance by heavy metal giants Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, the Screen Arts Festival plus regular filmmaker Q&As. Sister company Picturehouse Entertainment is a recently established distribution outfit that has enjoyed great success with its releases to date: Jean Becker's My Afternoons with Margueritte, the record-breaking Werner Herzog 3D documentary feature, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and Miranda July’s The Future . Jean-Pierre Améris’ Romantics Anonymous is on release now.

Further Information: 

Charles McDonald 
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