Bleiberg Entertainment will be selling worldwide rights at the Toronto International Film Festival market to People of the Book, based on the historical novel by Geraldine Brooks. Deadline reported that the project, directed by Michael Haussman (Edge of the World), recently wrapped filming in the Valencia region of Spain, including at Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante, and in Trieste and Venice in Italy.
People of the Book "tracks the creation and survival of a sacred religious artifact across 500 years, weaving back and forth between a series of interconnected chapters that span across several centuries and countries including pre and post inquisition Spain, 17th century Venice, Nazi-occupied Bosnia and a contemporary narrative focusing on an Iraqi refugee family's harrowing escape journey from ISIS-held Mosul to safety in Europe."
The cast includes Ziad Bakri, Rania Ben Fattoum, Ankido Hussen, Luca Ferrini, Giorgia Sinicorni, Pasquale Esposito, and Jose Luis Ferrier. Adapted by Petter Skavlan (Kon-Tiki), the film is produced by Miriam Segal (The Infiltrator) and "marks the first project for Good Films Studios Spain, the joint venture between the Spanish government, Canadian-U.S. company Orogen Media and Segal's Good Films," Deadline noted.
"This has been one of the most challenging projects I have ever developed and produced. It has been an extraordinary journey, over many years. I am enterally grateful for the opportunity to bring this incredible, resonant, truly cinematic, epic narrative to the screen," said Segal.