John Trengove’s ‘The Smell Of Apples’ Sells To France Ahead Of TIFF Debut

EXCLUSIVE: ARP Sélection has acquired French rights to South African director and writer John Trengove’s Apartheid era drama The Smell of Apples ahead of its world premiere in Toronto.

Based on Mark Behr’s eponymous 1993 Booker Prize-nominated novel, the film follows a young boy growing up in a white utopia in Cape Town in the 1970s at the height of the racial segregation imposed by the Apartheid system.

On the surface his family leads a charmed life, but the complex family drama will expose the brutality beneath the idyllic façade.

“We were deeply touched and very impressed by the strength, the emotional power and the sheer beauty of the film,” remarked Michéle Halberstadt, co-founding chief of the Paris-based distribution company, the upcoming slate of which also features TIFF titles, Le Faux Soir by Michaël R. Roskam and We Are All Strangers by Anthony Chen.

The deal was brokered by Cercamon which is handling international sales.

“France has a special place in international cinema, and bringing The Smell of Apples to French audiences is an important milestone for us,” said Cercamon’s Sebastien Chesneau.

“We’re delighted to have ARP on board: Their enthusiasm for the film makes this a particularly exciting partnership, and we look forward to working together on its French release.”

Trengove’s previous credits include The Wound (2017), which made it onto the Academy Awards nomination long list as South Africa’s submission to the then Best Foreign Language Film category in 2018, and toxic masculinity drama Manodrome, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody.

The film is produced by Eric Abraham, Jack Sidey (Portobello Productions), Cait Pansegrouw (Cadence) and Frank Hoeve (BALDR Films). It is the second South African film produced by Abraham and Sidey, whose credits include the Academy Award-winning films Kolya and Ida.

The Smell of Apples will world premieres in the competitive Platform section.