A surprise success of the summer in the United States despite several controversies linked to suspicions of conspiracy, Sound of Freedom will be released in cinemas in France this fall.
Sound of Freedom will arrive in French cinemas on November 15, 2023. Released in the United States on July 4, the feature film directed by Alejandro Monteverde was, alongside the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the surprise success of the summer at the box office. -US office with 190 million dollars collected (for a budget of 15 million), ahead of Mission Impossible 7 or Indiana Jones 5.
The story of the film follows the character of Tim Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ). The man is a former US federal agent. He will embark on a rescue operation at the risk of his life, to free hundreds of children imprisoned by sex traffickers. In France, the feature film will be distributed by Saje Distribution, which announced the release date via a press release.
“We are honored to make Sound of Freedom available to French-speaking audiences. Its mission, as its director writes, is to “raise awareness of the reality of child trafficking.” We hope that the film can raise awareness by allowing a peaceful and fruitful debate with the help of experts, investigative journalists and associations who have been working on these subjects for years.”
“The film will be released on November 15, just before the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse (Sunday, November 19), and the International Day for the Rights of the Child (Monday, November 20)”declares the distributor.
A success to put into perspective?
According to CNN, the success of the feature film should be qualified due to suspicions of empty theaters in certain American cinemas. Angel Studios, producer and distributor of Sound of Freedom, reportedly invited its supporters to mass purchase tickets for the film before its release, with the aim of offering them free to low-income viewers on a website provided for this purpose.
“The distributor assures that 9.5 million tickets were sold… With a paradoxical effect observed in certain American multiplexes: sessions of Sound of Freedom supposed to be sold out actually had many empty seats, the seats purchased and made available not having found takers”noted Telerama.
A true story ?
Sound of Freedom is inspired by a true story but with many gray areas, particularly due to the controversial personality of the real Tim Ballard.
“The storyline is largely inspired by the life of Tim Ballard, a former civil servant who in 2013 founded a non-governmental organization specializing in infiltrating child trafficking networks in Latin America and the Caribbean using heavy-handed methods”underlines Télérama.
A controversial film
Very controversial, the work is also accused of conveying conspiracy theories linked to QAnon. “According to this movement, the ‘central lie’ implies that a ‘group of Satanist elites’, at the head of a child trafficking and child crime network, is trying to take control of our politics and our mediaexplain Vanity Fair.
French spectators will be able to judge it on November 15, 2023, therefore.