POLANSKI EYES SPY THRILLER THE MELISSA TREE AS TEASER HITS THE TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL

TORONTO, CANADA, 12 SEPTEMBER 2011 – A teaser film, shot by award winning young German director Gregor Erler, to publicise and finance US spy thriller, The Melissa Tree www.melissatreemovie.com gets its first screening today at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The 3 minute teaser film, produced by UK-based production company, FIG CINEMATICS www.figcinematics.com, and shot on location in Berlin, stars up and coming young German/American actors, Tomas Sinclair Spencer and Manon Kahle, and will be screened at 12 Noon at the National Film Board of Canada’s Mediatheque facility in downtown Toronto.

The Melissa Tree, a spy thriller about terrorism and the war on terror, tells the story of Paul Brodie, a deeply troubled journalist with a dark and destructive past, who travels to the Middle East to visit Melissa, a childhood friend, who then disappears before they meet.

In Bahrain, Brodie investigates his friend’s disappearance and soon finds himself hunted by CIA agents and assassins. He meets and falls in love with Beth, a lonely computer consultant. Together, as they search for Melissa, they unearth a covert plan to attack Iran, involving the Israelis, the CIA and a front running Presidential Election candidate, John Eagleton.

With the election just weeks away can Brodie and Beth stay alive long enough to break the story and stop Eagleton putting his terrifying plan for the Middle East into action?

A dark film about redemption, The Melissa Tree shines an uncomfortable light on the motivations of those who become terrorists and the government agencies who wage war against them.

The film deals with the human cost of terrorism in the context of Middle East politics and constantly focuses the audience’s attention on the choices/morality/ethics of the two main characters: Paul Brodie’s haunted terrorist and Admiral Eagleton’s ruthless CIA Director - constantly asking moviegoers to decide which of these two people is really the bad guy.

An intense, explosive and deeply emotional character-driven thriller, it brings together quality spy movies such as The Bourne Identity and personal redemption tales like The Kite Runner. It will appeal to audiences who like multi-strand plots, tense, Hitchcock-inspired set-pieces, engaging three dimensional characters and a moving, satisfying ending.

The property, which is generating great interest among movie industry insiders, has already attracted the attention of Roman Polanski’s Los Angeles agents, who’re considering the film’s viability.

Notes for Editors

To reserve a seat for the screening or for more information/publicity material please contact our press office spokesman Ron Sayadian on +44 (0) 7976 214 872 ronaldhsayadian@yahoo.co.uk or visit www.melissatreemovie.com