Celebrated French animation producer Didier Brunner (Ernest & Celestine, The Secret of Kells, The Triplets of Belleville) is ready to launch another emotional and artful feature film project worldwide, as Urban Sales has signed on to handle sales for Children of Liberty. Adapted from the novel The Nazis, My Father and Me by Robert H. Lieberman, the film will be ready to launch in Fall 2026.
Lieberman, who was born in the Bronx as the child of Holocaust survivors, co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with Rémy Schaepman, Marie Eynard and Olivier Legrand. Schaepman also directs Children of Liberty with Léahn Vivier-Chapas. Peter de Sève and Meryl Franck lead the design team.
Synopsis: New York, 1941. Twelve-year-old Steven Mayer suddenly loses track of his father, Wolf, who is being chased by two men in hats at Grand Central Station. Left to his own devices, Steven learns that Wolf is suspected by the FBI of being a spy for the Nazi government. With the help of Miriam, a spirited 14-year-old Austrian Jewish girl, they set out to find his missing father and find themselves plunged into a kaleidoscopic world filled with spies and secrets. In this global city that never sleeps, their quest for truth will take them further than they have ever been.
“Children of Liberty addresses friendship, heritage, memory and a past that is too heavy to bear. As producers, this film resonates with our own family history, with the fractures and secrets that arise amidst silence,” Didier Brunner told Variety. He described the project as “a film about war, but seen through the eyes of children. A gaze that can bring courage, truth and sometimes hope.”
The 2D-animated feature is produced by Didier and his brother Damien Brunner through their award-winning studio Folivari. Fabien Renelli and Matthieu Liègeois are also producers. Folivari’s executive producer partners are Mélusine Productions (Luxembourg) and Tchack (France). KMBO will distribute Children of Liberty theatrically in France; the pic has also been pre-bought by broadcasters Canal+ and Ciné+.
Urban is also handling sales rights to Eric San’s (Kid Koala) dialog-free animated feature Space Cadet, which had its worldwide premiere at Berlinale.
[Source: Variety]
