EXCLUSIVE: Salaud Morisset has locked a series of international distribution deals on Teodora Ana Mihai’s latest feature, Heysel 85, which debuted last week at the Berlinale.

The completed deals include Plaion, which has acquired rights for Italy. Smile Entertainment picked up the Nordics (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland). Five Stars has secured former Yugoslavian territories (Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia) alongside Albania, and will collaborate locally with Kino Meditran in Croatia and Demiurg in Slovenia. In the Benelux, Kinepolis Film Distribution will release the film theatrically in November.

The film is inspired by the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels, where 39 people died ahead of the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus. The official synopsis reads: The story follows Marie, the mayor’s daughter (Violet Braeckman), and a journalist of Italian origin (Matteo Simoni) who are drawn into the heart of the catastrophe, navigating professional responsibility, family loyalty, and mounting political pressure.

Heysel 85 is Mihai’s third fiction feature following Waiting for August (2014) and Traffic (2024). François Morisset, founder and managing director of Salaud Morisset, described the film as a “distinctly European story about responsibility, institutional failure, and moral courage. But those themes travel.” 

“The reaction at EFM confirms that audiences are ready for elevated genre storytelling rooted in real events,” Morisset added. 

Timo Lahtinen of Smile Entertainment said: “Heysel 85 shows the magnitude of the Heysel catastrophe without being exploitative, and reveals the incompetencies that made the tragedy possible. At the same time, it tells us something about the fragility of European collaboration even today. We are proud to bring this story to Nordic audiences.”