Screen profiles eight films with international acquisition potential playing at this month’s Malaga Film Festival, whch runs March 10-19.
The Enchanted (Els Encantats)
Dir. Elena Trapé
The Enchanted is about a woman who decides to take refuge from her busy life in the mountains of the Catalan Pyrenees. Laia Costa, whose credits include Lullaby and Victoria, stars as the woman who is recently separated from her partner and facing the absence of her young daughter who is staying with her father for a few days.
The film is the third feature from Trapé, following Blog in 2010 and Distances which premiered at Malaga in 2018. With The Enchanted, the director says she wanted to “focus on the visuals and the work with sound, aiming to make the audience join the journey of the main character”.
It is produced by Coming Soon Films and A Contracorriente Films, with Latido handling international sales.
Contact: Nathalie Curutchet, Latido Films, nathalie@latidofilms.com
Good Manners (Los Buenos Modales)
Dir. Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz
This comedy is about two sisters who meet accidentally at the birthday party of their grandchildren after not talking for years. Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz’s previous film Mi Querida Cofradía won the audience award at Malaga in 2018 Good Manners, screening out of competition this year, is produced by Atresmedia Cine, Escándalo Films and Escac Studio.
According to the director, “This is a film about the family, about the solitude of women that devote their lives trying to make things work. A story of everyday life, with humour but also with longing for the past, and the pain and silence triggered by break-ups.”
Contact: Film Factory, info@filmfactory.es
In The Company Of Women (Las Buenas Compañías)
Dir. Sílvia Munt
In the Company Of Women is set in 1976, just as Spain is transitioning to democracy after the long years of Franco’s dictatorship. It is based on the true story of a group of women in the Basque Country who fought for women’s rights in Spain, helping many to cross the border into France where they could have safe abortions.
For director Silvia Munt, who has had a long career as an actress before turning to directing, it will be a happy return in competition in Malaga where she won the best director award in 2008 for her first feature, Pretexts.
In The Company Of Woman is produced by Basque production outfit Irusoin, Barcelona-based Oberon Media and France’s Manny Films and La Fidèle Production.
Contact: Filmax, filmaxint@filmax.com
Killing Crabs (Matar Cangrejos)
Dir. Omar Al Abdul Razzak
Premiering in the more experimental section of the festival Zonazine, Killing Crabs is a first film by Omar Al Abdul Razzak and is inspired by events in his own life. Set in the 1990s in Tenerife, the film tells the story of a brother and sister who try and fill the time as they eagerly await the arrival of Michael Jackson to play a concert on the island.
The director has previously taken part in labs including Berlinale Talents and the Biennale College Cinema and has made both documentaries and shorts. The latest, the animation short La Prima Cosa, premiered in Annecy and was later nominated for a Goya Award in 2023. His first feature is a Spain-Netherlands co-production between Tourmalet Films and IJswater Films.
Contact: Tourmalet Films, info@tourmaletfilms.com
Not Such An Easy Life (Una Vida No Tan Simple)
Dir. Félix Viscarret
The film by Spanish writer-director Félix Viscarret following Staring At Strangers, explores the not so easy everyday-life tribulations and doubts of a 40-year-old architect who finds himself spending time either in his studio or watching his young son play in a park but never quite being where he should. The relationship with his wife is not ideal, he is tired out and he starts befriending another woman, the mother of one of the kids in his child’s school.
The lead is played by Miki Esparbé, whose credits include Elena Trapé’s 2018 film Distances.
The film, says Viscarret, deals with “the sleepless nights in your 40s when you realise you are not living the life you had dreamed of”.
Not Such An Easy Life is produced by Lamia Producciones, A Contracorriente Films, which is also handling distribution in Spain and Klingsor Films AIE.
Contact: Nathalie Curutchet, Latido Films, nathalie@latidofilms.com
The Punishment (El Castigo)
Dir. Matías Bize
Chilean director Matías Bizé, whose previous films The Life Of Fish and The Memory Of Water premiered at Venice, follows in real-time one of the worst nightmares of any parent: losing a child in the woods. Ana, played by Antonia Zegers, and Mateo (Néstor Cantillana) have left their seven-year-old son in the car alone for a few minutes as a punishment for behaving badly and the boy goes missing.
Bizé focuses on the stress of the loss and tensions within the couple for an 80-minute sequence shot. He wanted to make the film, he explains, out of the need “to rethink ourselves and to rethink ourselves as parents, not so much because we have the answers but because it’s interesting to ask the questions.”
The co-production between Chile’s Ceneca Producciones and Argentina’s Leyenda, is screening in competition at Malaga following its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in 2022.
Contact: Bendita Film Sales, info@benditafilms.com
Unicorns
Dir. Álex Lora
The first fiction feature by Àlex Lora, a Screen Spain Star of Tomorrow, explores the challenges of monogamy and polyamorous relationships through a young couple. Greta Fernández, whose credits include A Thief’s Daughter, leads the cast. It is written by Pilar Palomero (best known for Schoolgirls and La Maternal), with Lora, Marta Vivet and Maria Mínguez.
Inicia Films, the company behind Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 as well as Palomero’s films, is producing with Jaibo Films. Inicia producer Valérie Delpierre previously produced a number of Lora’s documentary films, including Thy Father’s Chair.
Contact: Filmax, filmaxint@filmax.com
Upon Entry
Dirs. Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez
This debut feature is a psychological thriller about a couple stranded at immigration at Newark airport in the US. Tensions start to rise between themselves as well as the officials. Alberto Amman (Narcos, Cell 211) and Bruna Cusí (Summer 1993) star with Laura Gómez, whose credits include Orange Is The New Black.
Upon Entry is inspired by first-hand events experienced by the directors. Produced by Zabriskie Films, Basque Films and Sygnatia, the film premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year and is playing in competition in Malaga fresh from SXSW.
Contact: Charades, sales@charades.eu
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