Armed Robber Turned Champion Ultrarunner to Be Profiled by Sundance Award Winner (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comJennie Punter Mila Aung-Thwin, a producer on 2022 Sundance Special Jury Award winner “Midwives,” will direct a feature documentary about Tiberiu Uşeriu (a.k.a.
Romania’s Ice Man), an extreme ultramarathon champion who turned his life around after serving time in a German high-security prison for armed robbery, the filmmaker told Variety during Toronto’s Hot Docs festival.Aung-Thwin, a cofounder of the acclaimed documentary production company EyeSteelFilm, is this year’s recipient of Hot Docs’ Don Haig Award, which is given to an outstanding independent Canadian producer with a film in the festival in recognition of their creative vision and entrepreneurship.“Ultra” (working title) producers include Cristian Nicolescu (“Donbass,” “Quo vadis, Aida?”), EyeSteelFilm’s Bob Moore, and Lithium Studios’ Mike MacMillan.
Canada’s Telefilm and SODEC have provided development financing, while the Romanian Film Institute has already put up production funding, Aung-Thwin said.
Meetings with potential partners are already ramping up. Cinetic Media senior exec Jason Ishikawas is repping “Ultra.”The production obtained the film rights to the documentary and fiction versions of Uşeriu’s best-selling 2017 book “27 de Pași” (27 Steps), which chronicles his life in crime, time behind bars, and his embrace of long-distance running in extreme environments.
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