EXCLUSIVE: Madrid-based sales outfit Kevin Williams Associates is branching out into Venezuela as the country’s filmmakers react to the death of former President Hugo Chavez earlier this year.

Here at the Marché, KWA is introducing Caupolican Ovalles’ drama Memorias De Un Soldado [pictured] to buyers.

This is an action drama set during the last days of Venezuela as a Spanish colony. Its story is told from the point of view of a soldier who switches sides, leaving the Spanish to join Simon Bolivar’s liberators. Williams argues that the film has an added topical and metaphoric resonance given the upheaval in Venezuela following Chavez’s death.

KWA is handling international rights on a second new Venezuelan title, Pablo de la Barra’s comedy La Ley about an innocent lawyer who marries into a powerful but corrupt family.

Meanwhile, KWA is continuing to pick up new titles from other Latin American countries. Also new on its Cannes slate are two comedies from Puerto Rico: Raul Marchand’s Broche De Oro (about the misadventures of a surfer boy, his grandad and the other folk from the old people’s home) and Javier Colon’s farce I Am A Director (about a young guy who convinces his friends and family he’s a Hollywood hotshot).

Williams is handling some Mexican fare too. He’ll be bringing Tom Gustafson’s musical comedy Mariachi Gringo (an award winner at Guadalajara recently) to Cannes and is also handling Pedro Pablo Ibarra’s romcom El Cielo En Tu Mirada.

KWA’s sister, Singapore-based company Elixir is also bring new fare to the Marché.

Elixir will be selling Jim Doyle’s British comedy Charlie Noades R.I.P starring Neil Fitzmaurice and John Thomson. Meanwhile, Elixir is beginning sales on Japanese erotic horrror film Dusk from Kodama Sum Sat.

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