Samuel Goldwyn Films has taken North American rights to Agnieszka Holland’s “Mr. Jones.” The period thriller debuted in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

Set on the eve of World War II, “Mr. Jones” stars James Norton as Gareth Jones, an ambitious young journalist who travels to Moscow to uncover the truth behind the Soviet propaganda machine. There he receives a tip, about a deadly famine in Ukraine, that could expose an international conspiracy and cost him his life. Vanessa Kirby and Peter Sarsgaard co-star.

“‘Mr. Jones’ is a masterful historical thriller which transported me to a time and place seldom seen on the screen,” said Peter Goldwyn, who negotiated the deal with sales company WestEnd Films on behalf of Samuel Goldwyn Films and Endeavor Content. “The film tells of a past that eerily echoes the present.”

Written by Andrea Chalupa, the film was produced by Poland’s Film Produkcja with support from the Polish Film Institute, Kraków Film Commission, Silesia Film Commission ORKA, Kino Świat, the Ukrainian State Film Agency and Creative Scotland. Chalupa also serves as a producer alongside Stanislaw Dziedzic and Klaudia Smieja. Executive producers include Jeff Field, Leah Temerty-Lord, Angus Lamont, and Egor Olesov.

Worldwide sales on the title are being handled by the London-based WestEnd Films. The film has already sold in many international markets including to Signature in the U.K.; Twelve Oaks in Spain; Rialto for Australia and New Zealand; Happiness in Japan; PVR in India; Spentzos in Greece; Outsider for Portugal; Another World across Scandinavia; and ECS across the Middle East.

Kino Świat will release the film in Poland at the end of October. MMD Distribution handles it in Ukraine.