David Farnor | On 06, Oct 2016

Cannes hit Divines is heading to the London Film Festival this month, before being released on Netflix in November – and the streaming site has released a new trailer to give us a glimpse of the award winner.

The film headed up Netflix’s acquisitions from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which includes Mercenary and Aquarius.

Houda Benyamina’s directorial debut was awarded the Caméra d’Or, the prize for the best first feature presented in one of the event’s selections.

The drama tells the story of Dounia, a tough, but naive teenager who sees getting rich or dying trying as her most viable option. Set in a ghetto near Paris where drugs and religion reign supreme, Dounia is hungry for her share of power and success. Enlisting the help of her best friend she decides to follow the footsteps of a respected dealer. When Dounia meets a young sensuous dancer, her life takes a surprising turn.

The film is released on Netflix everywhere except France on Friday 18th November. It screens at the London Film Festival today, on Friday 7th October and on Tuesday 11th October.

 

Camera d’Or winner Divines leads Netflix acquisitions from Cannes

7th June 2016

Caméra d’Or winner Divines leads Netflix’s growing slate of acquisitions from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, including Mercenary and Aquarius.

The festival, which took place in May this year, has never been more dominated by VOD, with Amazon screening five films on the Croisette, including the festival’s opener, Woody Allen’s Cafe Sociey. While Amazon was busy on the red carpet, though, Netflix was making waves with several deals of its own.

At the top of Netflix’s shopping list is Houda Benyamina’s directorial debut, Divines, which received rave reviews from critics and was awarded the Caméra d’Or, the prize for the best first feature presented in one of the event’s selections.

The drama tells the story of Dounia, a tough, but naive teenager who sees getting rich or dying trying as her most viable option. Set in a ghetto near Paris where drugs and religion reign supreme, Dounia is hungry for her share of power and success. Enlisting the help of her best friend she decides to follow the footsteps of a respected dealer. When Dounia meets a young sensuous dancer, her life takes a surprising turn.

The film will be released exclusively by Netflix around the world later this year.

“We saw Divines before it was award winning, praised by critics and received a standing ovation at Cannes, we immediately recognized it as an extraordinary film and acquired it early on,” says Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix. “We’re passionate about bringing our members great films from around the world and thrilled to bring Benyamina’s debut film to our members.”

“Emotions bring people together and are a reflection of society. Thanks to Netflix, Divines will cross borders and the world will be able to enjoy this universal story of love and friendship,” adds the director. “I am very happy with the collaboration with Netflix.”

The only place the film will be unavailable on Netflix is France, due the country distribution rules, which prohibit films streaming online on SVOD services for three years after a cinema release. It will arrive on Netflix France in 2019.

Divines is just one of many acquisitions, though, with the streaming giant also snapping up the rights to award-winner Mercenary and Brazilian drama Aquarius, which screened In Competition at the fest.

“Neighbouring Sounds marked Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho as a major talent; his first film in competition at Cannes, Aquarius confirms it. Here’s a filmmaker with a sense of social justice but a sinewy, surprising sense of story, novelistic in intent but full of well-judged flourishes of cinematic skill,” we said in our review. “A study of Brazilian society, a hymn to bloody-mindedness, even an exquisitely dark David vs Goliath comedy… This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius; make sure you catch it when it reaches the UK.”

Neflix’s announcement today follows the news that MUBI has snapped up the streaming rights to Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki.

Additional Netflix purchases are “still under negotiation”, but here’s a full rundown of Netflix’s Cannes acquisitions for 2016 (stay tuned for any updates):

Wheelman

The action thriller, which stars Frank Grillo in a film directed by Jeremy Rush, will have a worldwide premiere on Netflix in 2017.

Aquarius

A drama from Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho centered around Clara, a 65-year-old widow and retired music critic, who is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Avenida Boa Viagem, Recife. All the neighboring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death. (Aquarius will be on Netflix in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Latin America (outside of Brazil) UK with other regions to be confirmed.)

Mercenary

Sacha Wolff’s film tells the story of Soane, a young man of Wallisian origin from New Caledonia, who defies his father’s authority to go and play rugby in France. Left to his own devices on the other side of the world, his odyssey will take him on the path to becoming a man in a world where there is a price to be paid for success.

The Day Will Come

A Danish drama directed by Jesper Nielsen developed and written by Søren Sveistrup, known from hit shows like The Killing. Set in the 1960s, The Day Will Come centers around two two inseparable brothers, Elmer and Erik, who are locked in a boy’s home and engage in a battle against the tyrannical Headmaster Heck to set themselves free. (Exact country availability to be confirmed.)

Very Big Shot

The feature debut of Lebanese directed Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya. The comedy deals with brothers Ziad and Joe who run a small but lucrative drug-dealing business out of their takeout pizzeria in one of Beirut’s working-class districts. With their youngest brother Jad about to be released from prison, Ziad and Joe plan to go straight, but their supplier isn’t keen to see his dealers retire.

Journey to Greenland

A French comedy directed by Sébastien Betbeder. Two thirty-something actors from Paris hit a rough patch and decide to leave the city and fly away to Kullorsuaq, one of the most remote villages of Greenlands. Among the Inuit community, they discover the local customs and their friendship is challenged.

Raman Raghav 2.0

An Indian thriller from director Anurag Kashyap.Ramanna, a serial killer fascinated by a psychopath from the 60s, and Raghavan, a young policeman, are waging a battle without mercy. But who is really the one being chased?

Divines

The drama tells the story of Dounia, a tough, but naive teenager who sees getting rich or dying trying as her most viable option. Set in a ghetto near Paris where drugs and religion reign supreme, Dounia is hungry for her share of power and success. Enlisting the help of her best friend she decides to follow the footsteps of a respected dealer. When Dounia meets a young sensuous dancer, her life takes a surprising turn.

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