EXCLUSIVE: The Match Factory has boarded Lucrecia Martel’s new feature Zama and will begin pre-sales on the period drama in Cannes.

The film will be shot in Northern Argentina and Brazil during early 2015.

The Rotterdam CineMart-winning project is based on the novel by Argentinian writer Antonio Di Benedetto.

Zama takes place in the late 18th century. Diego de Zama, a South-American-born functionary of the colonial government, awaits a ship that should bring a royal missive avowing his promotion and transfer: the possibility to return to where his wife and children live, whom he has not seen in several years.

The producers are:

  • Benjamin Domenech and Santiago Gallelli from Rei Cine, the team behind Historia del Miedo by Benjamin Naishtat (Berlinale Competition 2014);

  • Vania Catani’s Bananeira Filmes, the producer of El Ardor by Pablo Fendrik (Cannes 2014, Official Selection, Special Screening);

  • Pedro and Agustin Almodovar’s El Deseo who also collaborated on Martel ́s previous film, La Mujer Sin Cabeza;

  • and MPM Film (the French co- producer of Bela Tarr ́s The Turin Horse).

Martel has established a strong international reputation on the back of her previous features La Cienaga (Berlinale Competition 2001), The Holy Girl (Cannes Competition 2004) and The Headless Woman (Cannes Competition 2008).

Zama is the director’s fourth feature.

“Ever since I saw Lucrecia Martel’s debut film La Cienaga in 2002, I have become an admirer of her cinema and wanted to work with her,” said Michael Weber, MD of The Match Factory.

“[She is] one of the most outstanding representatives of New Argentinian Cinema. The new script about the decline of a man during Spanish colonialism is fascinating, I’m enthusiastic to embark on this project with her.”

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