Goodfellas Boards Cannes Competition Title ‘Three Kilometers To The End Of The World’

EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas has acquired world sales rights to Romanian actor and director Emanuel Parvu’s thriller Three Kilometers To The End Of The World.

The feature was among three films added to the Competition line-up of the Cannes Film Festival on Monday as it announced 13 new titles in the Official Selection for its 77th edition, running from May 14 to 25. 

The thriller revolves around a 17-year-old young man who is spending the summer in his home village in the Danube Delta wetlands region in Romania.

One night he is brutally attacked on the street and the next day his world is turned upside-down. His parents no longer look at him as they did, and the seeming tranquility of the village starts to crack.

The cast features newcomer Ciprian Chiujdea as the protagonist alongside Bogdan Dumitrache (Best Intentions, Pororoca) and Laura Vasiliu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days).

Memento Distribution has acquired French rights for the drama.

“The film immediately seduced us and impressed us with the scale of its staging and its sense of storytelling,” said the company.

“Through the chronicle of this village nestled in the Danube delta, Emanuel Parvu succeeds in telling the story of an entire country and an era. It is extremely powerful, fundamentally political and perfectly controlled. For us, the film bears the mark of a great auteur.”

Three Kilometers To The End Of The World is Parvu’s third feature directorial credit after Mikado, which premiered in San Sebastian’s New Directors sidebar in 2021, and the well-travelled 2017 adoption drama Meda or The Not So Bright Side of Things.

As an actor, he was recently seen in Bogdan George Apetri’s crime thriller Miracle, which world premiered in Venice Horizons in 2021, and has also appeared in a number of films by Cristian Mungiu including Graduation. 

“We stepped into the world of Parvu’s masterful story telling and poignant performances of his actors, where the quietude of a village conceals the seismic shifts within,” said Goodfellas head of sales Eva Diederix.

“Three Kilometers is a cinematic odyssey,  that will immerse audiences in the raw beauty and stark realities of the  Danube Delta, narrating a tale that resonates far beyond its borders. It’s captivating, provoking and moving, it’s a cinematic gem and we can’t wait for buyers to embark on this profound human narrative with us.”

The picture is produced by his long-time producer Miruna Berescu of the FAMart Association with the support of Romania’s National Cinema Center.

Berescu, who also co-wrote the screenplay, said: “Three Kilometers to the End of The World could be seen as an universal story about love in all its forms, but it is also a little part of Romania. The film is now ready to find its own – hopefully long and meaningful – path towards the audiences.”