EXCLUSIVE: Cercamon has acquired international sales rights to South African director and writer John Trengove’s Apartheid era drama The Smell of Apples and released a first trailer 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.

“John Trengove has made a film of remarkable precision and emotional force,” said Sébastien Chesneau, Founder and CEO of sales company Cercamon.

“Through the intimate story of one family, The Smell of Apples exposes how violence and ideology take hold behind the façade of an idyllic world. It is bold, unsettling and deeply human cinema, and we are proud to bring it to international audiences as it begins its journey in Toronto.”

Trengove previously made waves with The Wound, which debuted at Sundance in 2017 before making it onto the nomination longlist for the Academy Award for the then Best Foreign Language Film category in 2018.

In between times, Trengove has also directed Berlinale-selected toxic masculinity drama Manodrome, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody, as well as episodes of Cape Town-set crime show White Lies.

New film The Smell of Apples is produced by Eric Abraham and Jack Sidey at Portobello Productions), Cait Pansegrouw at Cadence) and Frank Hoeve at BALDR Films.

It is the second South African film produced by Abraham and Sidey at London-based Portobello Productions, whose credits include the Academy Award-winning films Kolya and Ida.

“Cercamon are the perfect fit for The Smell of Apples,” said Sidey. “They grasped the film’s nuance and  emotional impact from the very first conversation, and we’re confident their expertise and formidable reputation will carry the film to a global audience.”

The Afrikaans and English-language film will premiere in TIFF’s Platform section, giving it a potential pathway to the Best International Feature Film race at the 99th Academy Awards. Under new Academy Awards rules, a non-English-language winner of the main TIFF Platform award will be eligible for consideration in the category.

The Block the Merger Coalition has launched a new petition urging the 12 state attorneys general to reject “empty concessions” from Paramount and “hold strong” in their legal fight against its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Financial analysts are now predicting that this deal cannot survive the wait of the trial and that Paramount must settle or risk losing Warner Bros,” the petition states. “We have them on the ropes, but Larry Ellison has proven time and again that he will use his vast wealth and influence to buy allies and control the public discourse. The Ellisons are paying for a powerful campaign to pressure the AGs to sell out our people by organizing a host of often financially conflicted executives and policymakers across the political spectrum.”

The coalition argues that merger concessions “don’t work,” noting that they’re “unenforceable, frequently abandoned and often attempt to pit impacted parties against one another,” citing research from the Writers Guild of America and the American Economic Liberties Project. They further warned that accepting unenforceable conditions from the Ellisons in a backroom rather than fighting in the courtroom is a “losing proposition.”

“Even in the best case scenario, concessions do not protect all workers and consumers. We believe that to make sure no one is left behind, we must #BlockTheMerger. That’s why we’re calling on state AGs to take their case to trial,” the petition continues. “Let’s show them that the power of many is greater than the power of their money. Billionaires have hoarded outsize wealth, but that doesn’t give them the right to control our lives, our media, and break the law. This deal will destroy competition and diversity in the creative sector. The antitrust lawsuit is strong. Let’s have our day in court and let the Judge decide.”

The lawsuit between the dozen state AGs and Paramount is headed to trial in March 2027. Paramount has agreed to delay the closing of the merger until five days after the outcome of the trial, or June 1, 2027, whichever comes earliest.

Starting Oct. 1, Ellison is on the hook to pay WBD shareholders a 25 cent per share ticking fee, which translates to a payout of $650 million per quarter or $7 million per day until the deal is closed. If the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters, he must also pay WBD a $7 billion break-up fee.

The contractual expiration date on the merger is June 4, 2027.

The latest move by the Block the Merger coalition comes as Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed a motion with the Supreme Court urging them to block the “politicized” antitrust lawsuit by California’s Rob Bonta and 11 other states.

The pair allege that the litigation is depriving their states’ economies of the deal’s benefits and and harming “tens of thousands of employees of Paramount and Warner Bros., as well as hundreds of millions who watch their movies, shows, and news through a variety of sources” in the process.

Iowa and Montana also requested that the Supreme Court set a deadline of Sept. 15 for Bonta and the other state AGs to respond and an Oct. 9 conference hearing. A spokesperson for Bonta’s office previously told TheWrap it is reviewing the filing from Bird and Knudsen and that it will “respond as appropriate.”

Meanwhile, a number of parties have called for a settlement between the states and Paramount, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the Democratic nominee in California’s gubernatorial race Xavier Becerra, the Directors’ Guild of America and IATSE.

In an interview with TheWrap on Monday, Bonta reiterated that the state AGs are “not interested” in behavioral remedies being offered by Paramount, such as Ellison’s pledge for 30 theatrical film releases a year.

In terms of specific examples of what a structural remedy could look like, Bonta said that someone else would have to own a “significant” portion of the 50 basic cable channels that would be included under the combined company, though he stopped short of saying CNN would be one of them.

“We have some thoughts on [specific channels]. I’m not going to share those with you. If we do end up ever having productive settlement negotiations, that is something to be discussed,” he added. “But the idea of what it means to have a structural remedy, for example, in the basic cable channel licensing market means separate ownership of a significant number of those channels.”

The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Bonta is interested in keeping the operation of the two companies’ studios separate. Bonta’s comments came after he canceled a mediation session with Paramount that was scheduled for Monday following the WSJ’s report.

Though Bonta said he remains open to “good faith” discussions to settle the lawsuit as early as this week, he emphasized that the states will only return to the negotiating table if Paramount Skydance agrees to “stop leaking and stop misrepresenting through their leaks” to the press.”

“It’s up to them,” he added. “They’ve got to figure out where the leaks are and shut them down. And once they figure that out, we’ll be happy to talk with them. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to figure it out and to fix it, but when they do, we’re ready.”

TheWrap exclusively reported a Los Angeles County study which found that the merger could result in nearly 4,500 film and TV jobs lost over the next three years when the two companies combine. It could also put over 5,800 indirect or induced jobs from related small businesses at risk, per the study.

Overall, the economic impact of losing these jobs would be $1.26 billion in wages, $2.78 billion in economic value, $4.06 billion in total business output and $547 million in tax revenue, including $78.6 million in local taxes — most of which (63%) comes from property taxes.

However, Ellison has threatened to move Paramount’s operations out of the Golden State if a settlement can’t be reached, a move experts warn could also be “devastating” for the local economy.

The Block the Merger coalition slammed Ellison’s threat, arguing that it proves his “disregard for industry workers” and that “only desperate people make threats like that.” Bonta, who has called the threat “blackmail,” emphasized in his interview with TheWrap that no matter where they decide to go, the lawsuit will continue. 

“They can’t escape accountability. There’s no reason, based on our lawsuit, for them to go anywhere else unless it was their plan all along before this lawsuit to always go to another state,” Bonta said. “Maybe they think it’s clever, maybe they think it’s helpful to be engaged in the court of public opinion. But as I’ve said time and time again, and I’ll say it now, this is a very straightforward, black and white, bread and butter, meat and potatoes antitrust case about three markets.”

“If there ever is a decision to leave California, that is completely David Ellison’s decision,” he added. “He owns it. It is laid at his feet. He’ll have to explain the 180-degree turnaround from ‘I’m committed to the future of Hollywood’ to ‘now I’m leaving.’”