International distributors have focused on Minamata, the period drama, starring Johnny Depp, about the environmental disaster in Minamata, Japan in the 1970s.
HanWay Films closed deals across Europe and Asia for the film, from director Andrew Levitas, which sees Depp play real-life photojournalist W.
Eugene Smith. It was Smith's heartbreaking images of Japanese villagers suffering from mercury poisoning — the result of industrial pollution — that helped bring the story of the Minamata tragedy to the world.
Japanese actress Minami co-stars as Aileen, the Japanese activist who convinces Smith to cover the story. Bill Nighy plays Smith's boss, Life magazine editor Robert Hayes, who first published the Minamata photos.
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