UK sales firm 101 Films International, the UK based sales division of Amcomri Entertainment, has acquired worldwide sales rights (excluding North America) for inspirational film 'Marlene'. 101 Films International will launch sales at the Toronto International Film Festival this week.
Directed and produced by Wendy Hill-Tout (Bloodthirsty) who also co-wrote the script with Cathy Ostlere, and co-produced by Michael Peterson (Lloyd the Conqueror), Marlene is the untold harrowing story of one woman’s fight for truth and justice – to exonerate Steven Truscott who was sentenced to hang for the murder of a 12-year-old classmate.
Produced by Voice Pictures, Marlene stars Kristin Booth (Defendor), Grey Bryk (Saw V), Maxim Roy (Regenesis) and Ryan Northcott (Mystery, Alaska), along with Julia Sarah Stone and Dempsey Bryk who play young Marlene and Steven.
Eoghan Burke, VP of International Sales at 101 Films International comments, “This is a fascinating and inspirational film based on an event that shocked the world. It is a story of a woman’s continued fight to force others to see the truth in plain sight despite their determination to avoid it. It also brings to the fore the current plight of many around the world who are caught up in miscarriages of justice and where the death remains the ultimate penalty.”
Director, Wendy Hill-Tout adds “It was an honor to tell this remarkable story about an ordinary woman who had to hide all the while burning with the desire to have the truth come out. I hope it inspires others, and that we all find the Marlene inside us to fight for justice and truth in our everyday lives.”
Marlene Truscott is Canada’s Erin Brockovich, an ordinary housewife who fought for justice and for her husband Steven Truscott to be exonerated from a crime he didn’t commit. The Truscott story became an international story when a 14-year-old schoolboy was sentenced to hang for killing and raping a 12-year-old schoolmate.
Marlene became involved in the fight for justice at a young age, and when Steven was released on parole after 10 years, she met him, and eventually fell in love with him. But the couple had to live a life of hiding as their children grew up, and Marlene couldn’t let the story die, determined that the truth would someday come out. Steven’s case was truly a miscarriage of justice as the police singled out Steven and ignored any evidence that pointed anywhere else, a story repeated to this day, as many innocents languish in jail. This is a very female story about an extraordinary woman.