“A chilling parable about the sins of the father becoming the punishments of the son, and about the moral arc of the universe bending, across generations, toward the coldest justice imaginable” VARIETY

“What gives Rimini its unifying comic vigour and pathos is the central performance by Michael Thomas” SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

“Sleazy-fun black comedy” THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“There is torment for everyone, including the audience. There is a kind of brilliance in it” THE GUARDIAN

Sovereign is proud to announce the award-winning comedy drama RIMINI is receiving its UK premiere this month at the BFI London Film Festival, as part of the ‘Laugh’ strand. The film will be released in UK cinemas 9th December 2022.

Winner of the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the Diagonale Film Festival, Austrian born Ulrich Seidl’s film is an unflinching, blackly comic drama, featuring an astonishing lead performance by Michael Thomas (Import Export) as washed-up, corset-wearing pop star Richie Bravo, who ekes out a living in a run-down Italian seaside resort, belting out wonderfully appalling ballads to an ageing audience in an off-season restaurant. Recalling Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, and like an X-rated version of Gerard Depardieiu in The Singer, Bravo is shamelessly seedy and undeniably loveable, despite his dreadful fashion sense and inappropriate between-songs banter (“Why so quiet? I was hoping for more energy!”). When his estranged daughter turns up, his comfortably boozy existence is rocked.

Outrageous, explicit and often uncomfortably bleak viewing, RIMINI is sublime, profound, and dripping with pathos and caustic wit, a film that Variety calls “a riveting, upsetting slow-burn electrified by a stunning central turn”.

Austrian born Ulrich Seidl is the director of numerous award-winning films and documentaries, including his feature debut Dog Days, which won the Grand Jury Special Prize at the 2001 Venice Film Festival; Palme d’Or nominee Import Export; and numerous award-winning documentaries such as Jesus You Know, Models and Animal Love. Seidl’s film work, derived from personal experiences like a severe Catholic upbringing and doing casual labour as a night watchman and warehouse worker, continues to shock and challenge viewers by posing essential questions about the nature of cinema and its ‘morals’: about the grey areas between the fictional and the documentary; about the limits of voyeurism and the urge to fight sentimentality; about the very different modes of acting - from amateur posing to professional faking.

SYNOPSIS

Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. He funds his dissolute lifestyle and addiction to gambling with concerts for busloads of tourists and sexual favours for his female fans. His world starts to collapse when his adult daughter suddenly breaks into his life and demands money from him that he never gave her. Meanwhile his elderly father, who suffers from dementia, goes round and round in circles in an Austrian nursing home.

THE FILM WILL BE RELEASED IN SELECTED UK CINEMAS 9 DECEMBER

RIMINI: FESTIVAL SCREENINGS

Rimini has been shown at the Berlin International Film Festival 2022 where it was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear for Best Film; Diagonale, Austria 2022, where it won the Diagonale Grand Prize for Best Feature Film; Palic Film Festival 2022, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film; and it showing this month at the BFI London Film Festival as part of the ‘Laugh’ strand.

ABOUT SOVEREIGN

SOVEREIGN releases auteur-driven feature films in the UK, from emerging and established international talent. Our carefully curated titles have played to strong critical and audience acclaim, often premiering at renowned international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto, Venice and many more.

Previously acquired titles include Peru’s entry into the Oscars ‘SONG WITHOUT A NAME’, which screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival; Philippine crime drama ‘VERDICT’, which received the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at the 76th Venice Film Festival; historical drama ‘MALMKROG’, which won Best Director in the Encounter section and opened the 70th Berlin Film Festival; Argentinian psychological thriller ‘A COMMON CRIME’, which received its world premiere at the 70th Berlin Film Festival; ‘BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN’, which won the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival; and controversial Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s ‘PETROV’S FLU’, winner of the prestigious CTS Artist award at last year’s Cannes Film festival, and also nominated for the Palme d’Or; ‘MEMORIA’, from Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, starring Tilda Swinton, which won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2021; Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s ‘THE GREAT MOVEMENT’, winner of the Special Jury Prize in the Horizons strand at the 2021 Venice Film Festival; and most recently Damien Odoul’s cinematic odyssey ‘THEO AND THE METAMORPHOSIS’, Winner of the Grand Prix at the New Horizons Film Festival in Poland.

Sovereign is a UK-based entertainment company committed to telling important and relevant stories across film, theatre, music and the arts. Sovereign’s productions include Palme d’Or winner ‘THE TREE OF LIFE’ (3 Oscar nominations), starring Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt; ‘EFFIE GRAY’, starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters; and ‘VOYAGE OF TIME’ with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Upcoming productions include ‘TRIANGLE OF SADNESS’, starring Woody Harrelson, from acclaimed director Ruben Ostlund (winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or for ‘The Square’), receiving its UK premier at this year’s BFI London Film Festival; and ‘INSIDE’ starring Willem Dafoe.

www.sovereignfilms.co.uk
info@sovereignfilms.co.uk