12PM PST 1/18/2021
in
Etan Vlessing
The film about Swedish actor Bjorn Andresen, who played Tadzio in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice, will be shown at the Sundance World Documentary Contest.
Juno Films acquired the North American rights to the documentary The most beautiful boy in the world before its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film, which will be part of the World Documentary Competition on January 29, is directed by Kristina Lindstrom and Kristian Petri and produced by Stockholm-based Stantar Gardell’s Mantaray Film.
Sundance’s documentary portrays former child star Bjorn Andresen, whose life changed when, at the age of 15, he played Tadzio, the young man for whom Dirk Bogarde develops an obsession in the 1971 film Death in Venice by Luchino Visconti. The Italian director at the London premiere of Death in Venice proclaimed Andresen as “the most beautiful boy in the world”.
The Swedish actor, now in his sixties, in the documentary talks about that praise of the Italian conductor when reflecting on the fame of cinema and the curse of beauty in a film in which the directors use archival footage and interviews to tell their story.
Juno Filmes will release The most beautiful boy in the world in theaters in May 2021. The deal was negotiated by Elizabeth Sheldon of Juno Filmes, a film sales and distribution company launched in 2017.
Film Boutique owns the worldwide sales rights for the Swedish documentary.
The 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival is scheduled to take place from January 28 to February 3.