Cinetic Media Swoops on North American Sales Rights to ‘Manhunt,’ a Locarno Main Competition Contender (EXCLUSIVE)

Cinetic Media has acquired North America sales rights to “Manhunt,” which will world premiere in main competition at Locarno, competing for its top Golden Leopard.  

In a parallel move, Aspect Ratio has taken international sales rights to “Manhunt,” which marks the sophomore feature from Wayne Wapeemukwa whose “Luk’Luk’I” won best Canadian first film at TIFF in 2017.

Inspired by real-life murders that occurred in Canada in 2019, “Manhunt” follows two young men who embark on road trip through Canada’s vast northern frontier to escape their dead-end lives. “They drive through empty towns and vast forests as their lives dissolve between digital fantasy and offline reality,” the synopsis says.

“Reframing true crime as a parable, ‘Manhunt’ probes loneliness, masculinity, and the colonial dream of beginning anew – until the search for meaning turns into violence. Chasing salvation, two boys discover they can’t outrun what they’ve become,” it adds.

Starring Harris Lowe, Landon Tunold, Bianca Foscht and Dilara Foscht, “Manhunt” is written by Anna-Lena Theobald and Wapeemukwa.

Last fall, Wapeemukwa delivered a talk at Canada’s UBC on Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” It does not show how Nazis are human, but rather exposes how humans can become Nazis,” he argued. He went on to argue he does much the same in “Manhunt.”

“‘Manhunt’ comes from a real Canadian crime, but I was less interested in recreating the facts than in asking what kind of country produces this kind of violence,” Wapeemukwa says in a director’s note. “The film follows two young men running into a landscape of fantasy, isolation and colonial escape – a place where video games, masculinity, and national mythology start to bleed into one another,” he adds.

“After ‘Luk’Luk’I’ won at TIFF, I wanted to push further into genre: to make something dangerous, funny, ugly, and strangely beautiful about the dream of disappearing into Canada and beginning again.”

“Wapeemukwa’s unnerving film brings a fresh, formally interesting approach to looking at the human behavior behind the headlines. In a moment when masculinity and violence is consistently in the discourse, ‘Manhunt’ comes at a perfect time for audiences hungry for something more than true crime,” Cinetic said in a statement.

The biggest mid-summer film event in Europe, the Locarno Film Festival runs Aug. 5-15.