“Melchior the Apothecary” trilogy will reach customers of streaming services in the Czech Republic and Germany and the first film of the trilogy will be shown at the FANT film festival in Bilbao, Spain, in May.
The rights to trilogy, the detective adventure set in medieval Tallinn, were recently bought by the Czech streaming platform iPrima, whose customers will be able to watch the films in May. An agreement was also signed with Germany’s largest telecom enterprise, Magenta TV, which covers 40 million households. Magenta will also screen the “Melchior” films in May.
On 7 May, the first film of the trilogy, “Melchior the Apothecary”, will be shown as part of the competition programme of the FANT film festival in Bilbao, Spain. The same film was on 25 April also screened at the Bright Nights Nordic and Baltic Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.
An export item
The trilogy – “Melchior the Apothecary”, “Melchior the Apothecary. Ghost” and “Melchior the Apothecary. The Executioner’s Daughter” – were all released in 2023. The movies were directed by the Estonian stage and film director, Elmo Nüganen, and are based on the seven-novel series about Melchior the apothecary by Estonian author Indrek Hargla. The stories take place in medieval Tallinn, where Melchior the apothecary investigates various murders.
The first part of the adventure trilogy became the most watched domestic film of the year, with ticket sales exceeding 130,000.
One of the trilogy’s producers, Esko Rips, said the filmmakers’ ambitions were never limited to the domestic market. He hopes Melchior will become an important export item for Estonia, which could pique worldwide interest in local culture and Old Tallinn.
The producers of the trilogy have inked an international sales representation agreement with Global Screen, the worldwide distribution arm of Telepool, a Munich, Germany-based film and TV distribution and production company with more than 50 years of experience. Telepool is owned by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Inc. An agreement has also been signed with Amazon’s streaming platform, which will release the trilogy for German-speaking markets by 2024.
Screening at the New York Film Festival
In America, “Melchior the Apothecary” has been shown at various US film festivals: the Palm Springs Film Festival, the St. Paul Film Festival and the Screamfest Horror Film Festival, where the movie was awarded for Best Cinematography and Best Editing. In autumn 2023, the trilogy will be screened at the New York Film Festival.
“Melchior the Apothecary” was on 25 April also screened at the Bright Nights Nordic and Baltic Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.
