The Forge has bulked up its arthouse slate of major festival winners and acquired North American rights to Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Sujo. The company plans to support the film with a full awards campaign.
Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s Mexico-set drama premiered in Park City in January when it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Drama.
The feature will participate in a number of upcoming festivals including San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos strand spotlighting films from Latin America and AFI Latin American Film Festival, both of which take place later this month.
The Forge will release Sujo in select US and Canadian theatres on November 29 after CEO Mark Mathias Sayre negotiated the deal with Alpha Violet CEO Virginie Devesa on behalf of the filmmakers.
Juan Jesús Varela stars in the titular role as the son of a small-town cartel gunman who is orphaned when his father is killed and grows up in the isolated Mexican countryside under the shadow of violence. As he becomes a man, Sujo discovers that fulfilling his father’s destiny may be inescapable.
Rondero, Valadez, Diana Casarreal, Jewerl Keats Ross, Devesa, Jean-Baptiste Bailly-Maitre, and Nicolas Celis served as producers.
“Astrid and Fernanda join a talented list of Mexican directors that are producing world-class cinema,” said Sayre. “It is a privilege to bring such a powerful film to North America, and I am confident that audiences will find it as moving as I have.”
“Sujo is about finding your place in the world against all odds,” said Rondero. ”That journey and the journey of what it means to be a young person in a violent world inspired us to tell this story.”
Valadez said of The Forge: ”They understand our film and we feel honoured that they have chosen it to help define their mark on the world.”
Sujo marks the second feature from Rondero and Valadez after Identifying Features, winner of the 2020 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic audience award and special jury award for best screenplay.
That film also played San Sebastian and won nine Ariel Awards, Mexico’s equivalent of the Oscars, including best first feature.
Alpha Violet represents worldwide rights to Sujo and previously struck a raft of deals.
The Forge’s pipeline includes Guan Hu’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Black Dog, and Alison Tavel’s SXSW audience award-winning documentary Resynator.
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