“The Loneliest Man in Town,” an Austrian film by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, which competed at the Berlin Film Festival, has attracted a raft of distributors on the heels of its world premiere.
Brussels-based company Be For Films has sold the film to Germany (Weltkino Filmverleih), Spain (Avalon), Italy (Wanted), Japan (Mimosa Films), Brazil (Autoral Filmes), Benelux (Lumiere),
Greece and Poland (Cinobo), Portugal (No Comboio), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Indonesia (Falcon) and Ukraine (Kyiv Music Film).
The movie was previously acquired by KMBO (France), Xenix Filmdistribution (Switerland), A-One Films (Baltics) and New Cinema (Israel).
Set in Vienna and shot on Super 16mm, “The Loneliest Man in Town” centers on blues musician Al Cook, born Alois Koch, who plays a version of himself in a quietly devastating meditation on memory, grief and resistance to erasure. Living among vinyl records, books and videotapes – relics of a life once fully lived — Al finds his fragile balance shattered when a real estate company targets his home for demolition, forcing him to confront both material and emotional dispossession.
Covi and Frimmel’s previous film “Vera” premiered in Venice’s Horizons section in 2022, winning best director and best actress (for Vera Gemma); and going on to represent Austria in the Oscar race.
Pamela Leu – whose company Be For Films worked with Covi and Frimmel on “Mister Universo,” recipient of the Fipresci Award in Locarno, and “Vera” — described their new film as an “intimate, unique story is led by a truly singular character.”
Variety’s review described the film as a “work of gently enveloping drama that draws from reality,” and pointed out the “soundtrack of rich recordings by blues greats like Lonnie Johnson and Bertha “Chippie” Hill.”