Rome-based sales company True Colours has picked up international rights to "No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman," a drama by Norwegian-Kurdish director Halkawt Mustafa, ahead of its world premiere Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival in September. The film centres on a female Peshmerga sniper who travels to Mosul to rescue her younger sister from ISIS, drawing on real accounts from Kurdish women who fought the group, and adds to a growing slate of Venice titles from established sales outfits ahead of the festival.

The film stars Avan Jamal as the lead sniper, alongside Thorbjørn Harr, Kanar Sarchl and Kader Jalal, with Mustafa writing, directing and producing. It is made by Hene Films, in co-production with Sweden's The Chimney Pot and Iraq's La Media, and follows Mustafa's earlier work on Kurdish and Iraqi subjects, including the documentaries "Hiding Saddam Hussein" and "The Women ISIS Fears" and Iraq's 2016 Oscar submission "The Classic." True Colours' Fabio Tucci described it as a powerful portrayal of the Kurdish people's struggle through a female fighter's eyes.