The Tarak Ben Ammar "empire": controlling the film’s lifecycle
The North "returns back down" to the South

The Quinta Group comprises Quinta Communications, Quinta Industries and Quinta Distribution, created in 2004 and inaugurated by The Passion of the Christ.

 

QUINTA DISTRIBUTION

 

"In 2001, I almost produced The Passion of the Christ. Mel Gibson came to Tunisia. After the 11 September, the Arab countries being prohibited for directors by the insurance companies, he shot his film in Italy. I helped him without actually being the producer. One day, I called him and he said: 'Are you still living in that intolerant country?' I didn’t understand. He explained that most French distributors, the six or seven key companies, had decided not to release a subtitled film on Jesus, around which there was already a scandal without anyone having seen it – a journalist even said that it was judged in absence. Mel continued: 'You know me, I am a Christian, a believer. I believe in all races. It would be a sin to be antisemite or racist.' I had been on the set, I was aware of the quality of the script and the work. I replied: 'I will release it. I am not a distributor but I am going to become one.'"

 

In fact, Tarak Ben Ammar planned to start in the distribution business. Originally foreseen for May, the creation of Quinta Distribution was brought forward to February 2004. In the face of the scandal – antisemitism, gratuitous violence –, he takes the bull by the horns: in the television news shows, talk-shows, written press, he defends and explains the work point by point. "The film is not about violence but about suffering, the universal tragedy of intolerance. The film has the merit of transforming the fascination that violence exerts on the masses into the aversion of violence. It shows up to which point violence is detestable and reveals the pity that man has for his fellow humans. He carries within him a tragic force that should allow the audience to identify, through Jesus, with the suffering of their contemporaries, but also to understand the responsibility of each person in the persecutions that men inflict on other men. It denounces the fact that religion is used to inflict cruelty..."

 

"The controversy around antisemitism is unfounded. Firstly, ne Jewish or Roman descendant can be held responsible for the acts committed by his ancestors; secondly, Jesus was himself a Jew. He strikes me as being a great reformer unjustly sentenced to death, expiatory victim of the ignorance of man and the blind stupidity of the crowd." "The most important part of the film is the forgiveness that Jesus gives to his enemies."

 

In a survey performed by Ipsos in France at the time f its release in April 2004, the audiences answer: 57% that "no, this film does not show too much gratuitous violence", 88% that "no, it does not encourage anti-Semitism", 85% that "yes, it seems to correspond to the Gospel". The film generated almost 1.8 million entries in France.

 

After The Passion of the Christ, the company distributed Mariage mixte by Alexandre Arcady, The In-Laws by Andrew Fleming, with Michael Douglas, City by the Sea by Michael Caton-Jones, with Robert de Niro, Apocalypto by Mel Gibson, Chromophobia by Martha Fiennes, Hannibal Rising by Peter Webber, The Last Legion by Doug Lefler...

DVD DISTRIBUTION

Quinta also distributes films on DVD, a market that is complementary to the theater market. He holds the totality of the rights on feature-length films that he has produced (Femme Fatale by Brian de Palma); he shares these for films produced by others, such as The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. The company acquired the film rights for films made in the past, such as Pirates by Roman Polanski, to be able to distribute them on DVD.