Devesa, Funato launch Alpha Purple

PARIS -- Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato have released Alpha Purple, a Paris-based sales company that underscores the cosmopolitan achieve from the Gallic sector. One early Alpha Purple acquisition, "Off Whitened Lies," from Israel's Maya Kenig, performed competing a week ago in the Palm Springs Festival and screens in Berlinale's Generation sidebar. Backed by France's Chamber of Commerce, Alpha Purple aims to utilize new talent from emerging national movie theaters, making worldwide sales on movies that reflect the burgeoning breadth of arthouse production. Alpha's range reflects its founders' skills: Both labored at Hengameh Panahi's Celluloid Dreams before joining U Media. Funato then labored for Japanese distributor Uplink while Devesa offered being an audiovisual attache in the French Embassy in Moscow. Arthouse comedy "Lies" is placed in the outbreak from the second Lebanon war and follows a parent and daughter appearing as refugees to snag accommodation having a wealthy Jerusalem family. Alpha Violet's two other buys tackle social issues more directly. "Journey to Portugal," from Portuguese docu filmmaker Sergio Trefaut, starring Maria p Madeiros, denounces prejudice and European airport terminal border control methods. Russian helmer Alexander Vartanov's "Bullet Collector" is really a low-budget, b&w coming-of-age tale that captures the violence of edgy Moscow youth. Kenig, Trefaut and Vartanov are first-time fiction company directors. "You want to partner with filmmakers using their origins and focus on quality, daring films with issues we want to discuss," Devesa told Variety. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com