A press release in this morning from Benten Films breaks news that the upstart DVD company has signed a deal to release The Free Will (Der Freie Will), the controversial Silver Bear winner from the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. Clocking in at 163 minutes, with a first act featuring a real-time rape scene, Mattias Glasner’s film was celebrated by juries and bloggers during its Festival run, but deemed by Variety to be all but unreleasable. It’s a bold move for the Benten team, a sign that their scope is much wider than the M-word associations of their first three releases (LOL, Dance Party USA/Quiet City, and the upcoming The Guatemalan Handshake). Check a clip from The Free Will above. The DVD will be available in late July.
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