Nine films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico will make up the Horizontes Latinos section of San Sebastian Festival’s 68th edition.
The Chilean Leonardo Medel (Concepción, 1983), who has directed several short films and interactive projects, will present his second feature film after Coach (2015). In La Verónica, which will have its world premiere at San Sebastian and stars Mariana di Girolamo (Ema, Pablo Larraín, Perlak, 2019), he narrates the life of an enormously popular model on social media who falls into disgrace after being named prime suspect in the investigations into the murder of her first daughter.
With earlier experience in several of the Festival sections, four writers who are also actors, filmmakers, teachers and playwrights share the directing work on Edición Ilimitada/Unlimited Edition,a feature film in which Virginia Cosin (Caracas, 1973), Edgardo Cozarinsky (Buenos Aires, 1939), Santiago Loza (Córdoba, 1971) and Romina Paula (Buenos Aires, 1979), winner of the Horizontes Award with De nuevo otra vez/Again Once Again (2019), reflect on writing, reading, the generation clash and the creative process. This film of collective authorship will also be screened as a world premiere.
The debut from the Argentine Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière (Buenos Aires, 1996), Mamá, mamá, mamá/Mum, Mum, Mum, won the International Jury’s Special Mention in the Generation section of Berlin Festival. It narrates the ups and downs in the life of Cleo, a young girl trying to cope with her sister’s death in a world without adults and in the company of three cousins as they enter the turmoil of their feminine world.
Todos os mortos/All the Dead Ones participated in the Official Selection of the last Berlin Festival and is a new collaboration between the Brazilians Caetano Gotardo (Vila Velha, 1981) and Marco Dutra (Sâo Paulo, 1980). While both have put their names to their own works, Gotardo was the editor of As boas maneiras/Good Manners (2017), Dutra’s previous film, and they now jointly write and direct this story of former masters and servants set in Brazil in the late 19th century, just after the abolition of slavery.
Natalia Meta (Buenos Aires, 1974) will present El prófugo/The Intruder, which also competed at the Berlinale and follows a lyrical singer who works dubbing films and suffers a traumatic episode she can’t shake off. The Argentine filmmaker has worked as a literary editor and her debut film was Muerte en Buenos Aires (Death in Buenos Aires, 2014). She was also the associate producer on films including Las acacias (Pablo Giorgelli, Horizontes Latinos, 2011) and Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017).
The Chilean Carolina Moscoso (Santiago, 1986), with experience as a director and editor in animation, music video and theatre projects, will present Visión nocturna/Night Shot, a nonfiction in which she ponders on what rape really is and when it ends. This first feature film bagged its author the Grand Prix of the International Competition for Best film at the last Marseille Festival.
The Argentine Clarisa Navas (Corrientes, 1989), who made her debut with Hoy partido a las 3 (2017), will participate in Horizontes Latinos with her second film, Las mil y una/One in a Thousand, a project resulting from San Sebastian Festival’s Co-Production Forum in 2018. The film, which opened Panorama section at the last Berlinale, won Best Film at Jeonju Festival (South Korea) thanks to the tale of a young girl faced with the highs and lows of her first love.
Yulene Olaizola (Mexico City, 1983), whose debut Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo (Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies,2008) premiered at the BAFICI and nabbed a special mention in Horizontes Latinos, will return to this section with Selva trágica/Tragic Jungle, shortly to be presented in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Mostra. The author of films screened at Rotterdam and the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes situates her film deep in the Mayan jungle, between Mexico and Belize, where a beautiful and mysterious young woman awakens an ancient legend in the heart of the jungle.
Sin señas particulares/Identifying Features is the directorial debut in feature films from the Mexican producer Fernanda Valadez (Guanajuato, 1981), which received the Films in Progress Industry Award at San Sebastian Festival in 2019 and premiered in the World Dramatic Competition at the last Sundance Festival, where it carried off the Audience Award and the Special Jury Prize for Best Screenplay. The film follows the odyssey of Magdalena, a woman who sets out for the US border to search for her missing son.
All of the films in the section will compete for the Horizontes Award, coming with 35,000 euros for the director of the film and its distributor in Spain; also contending for the TCM Youth Award are the selection’s first and second works: Mamá, mamá, mamá/Mum, Mum, Mum, Las mil y una/One in a Thousand, El prófugo/The Intruder, Sin señas particulares/Identifying Features, La Verónica and Visión nocturna/Night Shot.
EL PRÓFUGO / THE INTRUDER
NATALIA META (ARGENTINA – MEXICO)
Cast: Érica Rivas, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Cecilia Roth, Daniel Hendler
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Inés is a lyrical singer who works dubbing films. During a dream holiday she suffers a traumatic episode she is unable to recover from. Since then she has problems sleeping. She has hugely vivid nightmares from which she has difficulty waking up and a series of strange sounds seem to come from inside her. Inés starts to feel that she is surrounded by beings who emanate from her dreams. Beings who want to stay forever.
EDICIÓN ILIMITADA / UNLIMITED EDITIONED
GARDO COZARINSKY, SANTIAGO LOZA, VIRGINIA COSIN, ROMINA PAULA (ARGENTINA)
Cast: Edgardo Cozarinsky, Ezequiel Fernandez Sasso, Juan Manuel Casavelos, Alan Cabral, Katia Szechtman, Rafael Otegui, Cynthia Edul, Mía Miceli
Cinematic meeting between four writers who are also actors, directors, teachers and playwrights. This multiplicity of trades in relation to the word is the common point of the four episodes making up the film. Four stories, four protagonists: two men, two women who reflect, in different ways, on writing, reading, the generational clash and the creative process.
LA VERÓNICA
LEONARDO MEDEL (CHILE)
Cast: Mariana Di Girolamo, Patricia Rivadeneira, Ariel Mateluna, Antonia Giesen, Willy Semler
Veronica, a model who enjoys huge popularity on social media and is married to an international football star, sees her world tumble down around her when she learns that she’s the prime suspect in an investigation into the murder of her first daughter, killed 10 years ago. Amid the pressure of the investigation, her marriage is on the verge of breakdown and she begins to feel jealous of Amanda, her newborn daughter.
LAS MIL Y UNA / ONE IN A THOUSAND
CLARISA NAVAS (ARGENTINA – GERMANY)
Cast: Sofía Cabrera, Ana Carolina García
When Iris meets Renata, a young woman with a tough past, she feels immediately attracted to her. She will have to overcome her fears and struggle with her insecurities in order to experience first love. A story full of tenderness in a very hostile environment where desire adapts many forms in the darkness, and gossip can turn into a dangerous weapon. Project presented at the Co-production Forum in 2018.
MAMÁ, MAMÁ, MAMÁ / MUM, MUM, MUM
SOL BERRUEZO PICHON-RIVIÈRE (ARGENTINA)
Cast: Agustina Milstein, Camila Zolezzi, Matilde Creimer Chiabrando, Siumara Castillo
One summer morning, a young girl drowns in the family swimming pool. Her body stays there until her mother finds it. She leaves her other child, Cleo, alone at home for hours. Some time later Cleo’s aunt arrives, with “the cousins”: Leoncia, Manuela and Nerina. Each of the girls is caught up in their own particular micro-universe; while Nerina flirts with the few men available to her, Manuela looks at herself in the mirror because her mother has put her on a diet. Meanwhile, Cleo, marked by the tragedy of her sister, is unable to express her feelings: her mother has taken to her bedroom, as has her aunt, who is nursing her through the depression. That’s why Cleo, together with her cousins, throws herself into the feminine world of childhood, sometimes equally perverse as death itself: the fear of never having kissed, the fear of living alone all their lives, of menstruation, of a body that no longer belongs to the person who inhabits it, of the irreversible change of growing up.
SELVA TRÁGICA / TRAGIC JUNGLE
YULENE OLAIZOLA (MEXICO – FRANCE – COLOMBIA)
Cast: Indira Andrewin, Gilberto Barraza, Mariano Tun Xool, Lázaro Gabino Rodríguez, Eligio Meléndez
1920, on the border between Mexico and Belize. Deep in the Mayan jungle, a lawless territory where myths abound, a group of Mexican gum workers crosses paths with Agnes, a beautiful and mysterious young Belizean woman. Her presence incites tension among the men, arousing their fantasies and desires. Filled with new vigour, they face their destiny, not knowing that they have woken up Xtabay, a legendary being that lurks in the heart of the jungle.
SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES / IDENTIFYING FEATURES
FERNANDA VALADEZ (MEXICO – SPAIN)
Cast: Mercedes Hernández, David Illescas, Juan Jesús Verela, Ana Laura Rodríguez, Laura Elena Ibarra, Xicoténcatl Ulloa
Magdalena sets out on a peregrination in search of her son, who disappeared en route to the US border. Travelling through the desolate towns and landscapes of today’s Mexico she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the United States who is making his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel eager to see his mother again in a territory where victims and aggressors wander together. Films in Progress 36 Industry Award.
TODOS OS MORTOS / ALL THE DEAD ONES
CAETANO GOTARDO, MARCO DUTRA (BRAZIL – FRANCE)
Cast: Carolina Bianchi, Mawusi Tulani, Clarissa Kiste, Thaia Perez, Rogério Brito
The fast growing city of São Paulo, Brazil, 1899. A few years after slavery has been abolished. The three women of the Soares family, former owners of lands and slaves, just came back to the city. Lost after the death of their last housemaid, they struggle to adapt to the changes in Brazil. At the same time, the Nascimento family, who used to work as slaves in the Soares estate, are now facing a society in which there is no space for the recently freed black people. Between Brazil’s past and present, out of place, they all fight to survive in the modern world.
VISIÓN NOCTURNA / NIGHT SHOT
CAROLINA MOSCOSO (CHILE)
Eight years after being raped on a beach near Santiago, a young filmmaker composes a kaleidoscope with dozens of diary-videos showing the wounds of the abuse, the re-victimising legal proceedings and the friendship that accompanies her. One question arises in that journey: What really is rape and when does it end?
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