Films Boutique Nabs Documentary ‘A Taste of Whale,’ Set in Faroe Islands (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilms Boutique (“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”) has acquired international sales rights to Vincent Kelner’s cinematic documentary feature “A Taste of Whale” ahead of the European Film Market.“A Taste of Whale” is produced by Rémi Grellety, the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning producer of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and HBO’s “Exterminate All The Brutes.”The film looks at the centuries-old tradition of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands.

Every year, nearly 1,000 pilot whales are hunted, beached and killed by knife in the fjords. This local whaling tradition, which is known locally as “grind,” dates back to the eighth century and has been denounced by international activists.

On the other end, Faroese people are calling out the hypocrisy of those who eat meat without looking at what is happening in slaughterhouses.

Kelner, an experienced journalist and cinematographer who has worked on several TV productions in France and abroad, said he “wanted to rely on the specific circumstances of the Faroe Islands to reflect on a significant, global issue of our time.”“In presenting the perspectives of both whalers and activists, I wanted the audience to bear witness to the ‘Grind’ and to confront a practice that’s too often taken for granted: in order to get meat on the table someone has to kill a living being,” said the French writer-director.