“Matarifes,” picked up for worldwide sales by Germany’s Picture Tree, features at this year’s Guadalajara Construye, one of the industry centerpieces at Latin America’s biggest film festival.
It is joined by the next from “Yesterday Wonder I Was” director Gabriel Marino and buzz title “Poor Daniel.”
Shown just to the section’s jury, “Matarifes” marks Uruguayan directors brothers Rafael and Bernardo Antonaccio’s follow-up to an eye-catching breakout debut, the slow-boil but finally explosive thriller “In the Quarry,” which sold to most major markets worldwide and flagged the Antonaccios as talents to track.
A three-country multilateral co-production – usually a good sign with Latin American titles – once more in “Matarifes” social-issue observance is galvanised by a thriller drive and a singlar setting, here the 1970s meat ban in Uruguay.
Starring famed film director Claudia Sainte-Luce (“The Amazing Catfish”), “The Night Is About to Come” marks a return to filmmaking for Mariño who burst on the scene with road movie “A Secret World, selected for Berlin, followed by low-fi fantasy romance “Yesterday Wonder I Was,” a double Morelia winner.
There’s also good word on “Poor Daniel,” the first feature from respected Argentine actor and playwright Santiago Gobernori.
Production partners on “I Have To Leave” include Animal de Luz, headed by Inna Payán, a key producer on Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “La Jaula de Oro.”
“Swimming in the Blue” has won a bunch of screenplay awards and grants. Daniel Riglos’ “Where Dreams Sleep” marks a 10 year journey from short to feature.
A closer look at the titles:
“I Have to Leave,” (“Me tengo que ir,” Hugo Arrevillaga Serrano, Animal de Luz, Cine Acrílico, Mexico)
A nurse adrift finds an unlikely guide to confront grief and memory. Shot across Mexico City with a low-budget, emerging crew and a first-time film director from the theater, the film “embraces both risk and intimacy. It’s an honest portrait of healing, where holding on too long deepens the wound and learning to loosen its grip becomes the only way forward,” says producer Vicente Garibay Lijanova.
‘I Have to Leave’
“The Night Is About to Come,” (“Ya se quiere venir la noche,” Gabriel Mariño, Humanos Defectuosos, Jaibol Films, Pirexia, México)
Lucero, a lonely call-center worker, attends a high-school reunion, opening old wounds. “As an impulsive act of defiance she stages her own death, only to have a classmate’s hidden confession force her to confront the one thing she cannot outrun: herself,” says the synopsis. “This film is a raw character study,” says Mariño. “The film embraces her contradictions without trying to resolve them. Ambiguity becomes a way of seeing her, not defining her. What remains is an attempt at empathy.”
‘The Night Is About to Come’
“Matarifes,” (Monarca Films, Uruguay; Blurr Stories, Spain, Hain Cine, Argentina; La Mayor Cine, Uruguay; Nadador Cine, Uruguay)
Given a meat ban, Galician immigrant José and daughter Rosita set up a clandestine slaughterhouse. As the operation grows across the city-wide black market, their ambitions clash with corrupt authorities, rival butchers and a shifting political landscape, pushing the family toward dangerous alliances and violent consequences. “‘Matarifes’ explores how survival can push people to cross boundaries, and how, in that process, ambition ends up devouring everything,” say Rafael and Bernardo Antonaccio.
‘Matarifes’
“Poor Daniel,” (“Pobre Daniel,” Santiago Gobernori, Lucía Valdemoros, Blurr Stories, Obol Film Club, Argentina, Spain)
Daniel and Elizabeth’s routine existence is shattered by the arrival of Elizabeth’s brother, just released from a psychiatric clinic, sparking a ménage “as unexpected as tender.” “An attempt to blend my search for acting poetics and film language,” says respected Argentine actor Santiago Gobernori,, who adapts his own stage play. Produced by Spain/Argentina-based Blurr Stories, behind Iván Fund’s Berlin Festival Jury Prize winner “The Message,” and Argentina’s Obol (“La Sudestada”).
‘Poor Daniel’
“Swimming in the Blue,” (Tempo Meio Azul Piscina,” Sofia Federico, Benditas Projetos Criativos, Araçá Filmes, Mar Digital, Brazil)
“More than telling a story, my wish is to show the strength of human relations, how they are built and how they are part of us. Solidarity, affection and caring for one another – above all among women – are very present in the plot, with priceless values,” director Sofia Federico tells Variety. A double winner at Frapa 2020 while in development, taking two awards, one a Projeto Paradiso Award for feature screenplay.
“Where Dreams Sleep,” (“Donde Duermen los Sueños,” Daniel Riglos, Bonzo Films, Animalita, Frontera Cine, Peru)
A feature makeover of a Riglos short: a car accident leaves Santiago in coma, connecting via memory and dreams with Alina, the love of his life, who died. “Santiago must make the most painful decision of his life: hold on to the woman he loves and disappear… or let her go and survive.” “A personal exploration of memory and desire, grounded in a story showing how the mind negotiates reality, fantasy, imagination and dreams,” Riglos told Variety.
‘Where Dreams Sleep’
