Lively sales for Indonesian 'Zoo'

"Postcards From the Zoo," the first Indonesian feature to compete for the Golden Bear, has landed a string of sales ahead of its premiere today, including deals for Germany and South Korea.Berlin-based Neue Visionen nabbed rights for Germany while Stadtkino Filmverleih Wien took the title for Austria.The Match Factory also sealed deals for the pic with Sponge Entertainment in South Korea and Joint Entertainment in Taiwan.Writer-director Edwin's latest work is a coming of age story about a girl who grows up in a zoo after being abandoned as a small child by her father. Her life is transformed by a mysterious and charismatic young cowboy magician.A major player in Indonesia's emerging film scene, Edwin won international acclaim with his 2008 feature "Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly."That film led to Edwin's new project being selected for the Torino Film Lab and then Pusan's Asian Project Market. There, Edwin and producer Meiske Taurisia met Karl Baumgartner and Thanassis Karathanos of German shingle Pallas Films, who came on board as co-producers.The project went on to secure support from the various festival funds, including backing from the Sundance Lab."This project is entirely supported and funded by the kindness of festivals," said Lorna Tee, who co-produced film with Babibutafilm, the Jakarta-based company run by Edwin, Taurisia and cinematographer Sidi Saleh, Pallas and fellow Indonesian partners Miles Films and Elang Perkasa Film. "This project literally has gone through nearly all the major project markets there are out there."Indeed, the pic owes its existence to such programs as the Torino Film Fund, the Hubert Bals Fund, Goteborg Intl. Film Festival Fund, the Sundance Institute, L'Atelier Cinefondation, Cinemart and the Asian Film Project."Postcards From the Zoo" stars Ladya Cheryl, who appeared in "Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly," and Indonesian heartthrob Nicholas Saputra, star of such films as "Pesantren" and "Three Days to Forever" (he's also L'Oreal's local "brand ambassador").The Match Factory is handling world sales for the film, one of four Indonesian titles unspooling at the Berlinale. The others include "Children of Srikandi" in Panorama Dokumente, "The Mirror Never Lies" in Generation Kplus and the Panorama short "7 Deadly Kisses." Contact Ed Meza at ed.meza@mannaa.de