The Match Factory records multiple sales of Gianni Amelio's 'Lord of the Ants' ahead of Venice premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Prominent arthouse sales company The Match Factory has completed several sales on Italian author Gianni Amelio's Venice competition title "Lord of the Ants" ahead of its premiere in Venice on Tuesday.

The Match Factory has reached deals on Amelio's latest work – which is a biopic of the poet , playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was imprisoned in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law - which will ensure the film's theatrical release in: Australia/New Zealand (Palace Films); Japan (Zazie Films); Spain (Surtsey Films); Sweden (TriArt Film) and Greece (Ama Films). Other agreements are being negotiated, the company said.

Braibanti was sentenced after a complaint from his partner's father, who then forced his son to be treated with electroshock therapy in a misguided attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to "morally" mislead innocent or reckless people, was repealed in 1981.

"Lord of the Ants" features a top Italian cast including Luigi Lo Cascio ("The Ties ”), Sara Serraiocco (“The Counterpart”) and Elio Germano, winner of the Best Actor award at Cannes for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of the 2021 Italian David di Donatello Prize for “Hidden Away” by Giorgio Diritti.

Amelio is best known for the Oscar nominee "Open Doors" (1990) and also "Stolen Children ", which won the Cannes Grand Prix in 1992, as well as "Hammamet", a portrait of the last years in Tunisia of the late Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.

The film is produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film — the pebble he co-founded with the veteran author Marco Bellocchio –– and Beppe Caschetto's IBC Movie, Tenderstories and RAI Cinema.

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