US sales company The Little Film Company has picked up sales rights to The Clinic, a low-budget privately-financed debut thriller from Australian director James Rabbitts.
It is about a group of women fighting for their lives and the lives of their offspring and the cast includes Tabrett Bethell and Andy Whitfield, both soon to be seen in the US series Legend of the Seeker and Spartacus respectively, and Sophie Lowe (Beautiful Kate), billed as one of Australia's hottest rising talents.
Rabbitts and producer Samuel Pinczewski have worked together on commercials, short films and music clips under the Great Southern Land Entertainment banner since meeting at a private Sydney Film School. They are now working on a second feature, The Aurora Stone.
Financier Bob Marcs, producer Jonathan Shteinman, veteran distributor Richard Sheffield stood behind the pair as executive producers and are big believers in their talent. The film will be released in Australia under Sheffield's Polphony Entertainment next year.
A significant number of Australian filmmakers, usually men, are trying their hand at genre films now that there is an investment system in place that does not require direct government involvement. Instead they can use the producer offset to claim back 40 per cent of expenditure.
The film was entirely filmed on the flat farming landscape around Deniliquin in New South Wales.