Javier Bardem-produced doc picked up ahead of TIFF start

TIFF has barely even begun, and film sales have already started to trickle in. The first to get picked up for distribution? The Javier Bardem-produced documentary Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony, which sold to digital distributor GoDigital yesterday afternoon, before the film had even screened at the festival. The company plans on setting up a mid-October digital release that will launch in conjunction with a theatrical debut at the IFC Center in New York City, followed by a gradual, theatrical roll out across the country. "This is a gripping documentary made by passionate filmmakers," said GoDigital CEO Logan Mulvey. "We’ve been following the project for a while and wanted to grab it before it played at Toronto."

The film screened earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival, where it premiered to critical acclaim. The film follows the displacement of nearly 200,000 Sahrawi people after an unresolved conflict in the Western Sahara region of Northern Africa resulted in them taking shelter in refugee camps. Bardem produced the film alongside Lilly Hartley, with Morena Films’ Alvaro Longoria in the director's chair.

Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony screens its North American premiere next Thursday afternoon at Ryerson Theatre as part of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. ~Devin Garabedian