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.

Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.

Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.

Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );