Roope Lipasti’s novel The Neighbour excited huge interest at the Books at Berlinale

On February 14, film producers had once again the opportunity to discover exciting new literary material for the screen at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. This year, 81 books from around the world were submitted, more than ever before. Out of them twelve novels that have outstanding potential for the screen were chosen and presented on Tuesday at the Books at Berlinale. The books were from Finland, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Roope Lipasti at Berlinale

One of the chosen ones was The Neighbour by Roope Lipasti. It is a hilarious comedy of two men building an outdoor sauna and a beautiful wife in between them, full of witty, sparkling dialog and slapstick humour.

After the moderated five minutes pitching in front of about hundred film producers from all over the world, we were approached by German, French, Italian, British, Irish and even big American film producers during the breakfast. They said that the story is strong and appealing, “exactly what we are looking for”. Let us see what will happen in future, after we have sent the more specific synopsis of the novel for them.

Syd Atlas & Maria Säntti at the Books at Berlinale

In addition, we are now negotiating with a number of German, Italian, British and Swedish book publishers of the translation rights (foreign rights). In Finland The Neighbour (orignal title: Rajanaapuri) is due to be published in March 2012 by Atena Publishing House.

The Books at Berlinale was held within the scope of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, whose main partners are MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market (EFM).

Maria Säntti
Literary Agent