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Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Ulrike Ottinger’s “The Blood Countess,” the baroque black comedy starring Isabelle Huppert as the legendary Countess Elizabeth Báthory.
The film, which world premiered
in the Berlinale Special Gala section earlier this year, will make its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest on Sept. 17. Strand is planning a theatrical release in spring 2027.
The deal was negotiated by Jon Gerrans on behalf of Strand Releasing and Magnify Film Sales.
“We’re thrilled to be handling this unique film from Ms. Ottinger and look forward to working with Isabelle again on another film,” said Marcus Hu of Strand Releasing.
Strand has previously released several films starring Huppert, including Catherine Breillat’s “Abuse of Weakness,” Michael Haneke’s “Time of the Wolf” and Guillaume Nicloux’s “Valley of Love.”
Inspired by the life and mythology surrounding Báthory, the 16th-century Hungarian aristocrat who became notorious in folklore as a serial killer, “The Blood Countess” sees Huppert’s character awaken from a centuries-long slumber and set out across Vienna with her devoted maid Hermine in search of a mysterious book capable of destroying her.
The film was written by Ottinger with Elfriede Jelinek, the Nobel Prize-winning Austrian author of “The Piano Teacher,” and marks the culmination of a project the German filmmaker first conceived more than 25 years ago.
“I wrote the screenplay in 1998, in the last century, which sounds crazy now,” Ottinger told Varietyahead of the film’s Berlinale premiere, adding that she had wanted to make the project “for a very long time.”
Ottinger, a leading figure of German avant-garde cinema whose films include “Madame X — An Absolute Ruler,” “Ticket of No Return” and “Freak Orlando,” said Huppert had been attached in spirit almost from the outset. Rather than approaching Báthory through conventional psychological realism, Ottinger conceived Huppert’s vampire as an imperious, almost mythic presence.
“Here, the countess is iconic,” Ottinger said. “She is despotic and completely in control of her surroundings,” adding that Huppert “brought glamour and elegance to that authority.”
Ottinger, who received the Berlinale’s Honorary Golden Bear in 2020, also used elaborate costumes, production design and a highly stylized vision of Vienna to playfully subvert vampire-movie conventions.
The cast is completed by Birgit Minichmayr, Lars Eidinger, Thomas Schubert, André Jung and Tom Neuwirth, better known as Conchita Wurst.
Strand Releasing currently has Brydie O’Connor’s “Barbara Forever” and Gregg Araki’s 4K restoration of “Mysterious Skin” in release. Its upcoming slate also includes Mexico’s Oscar entry “On the Road,” directed by David Pablos.
