LA-based Shoreline Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Javier Fuentes-Leon’s debut feature Undertow (Contracorriente) ahead of its world premiere at Sundance on January 26.

Shoreline will co-represent the film with producer’s rep Steven Beer. Undertow is a ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside about a married fisherman who struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover and finds himself at odds with his town’s rigid traditions.

The film joins Shoreline’s prestigious slate of Spanish-language films such as Juan Carlos Valdivia’s Bolivian film and fellow Sundance 2010 entry Southern District (Zona Sur) and Sebastian Silva’s Chilean comedy The Maid (La Nana), winner of the world cinema grand jury prize at Sundance last year.

Shoreline’s director of acquisitions Brandon Paine and executive vice-president Sam Eigen brokered the Undertow deal with Beer, producer Rodrigo Guerrero and Fuentes-Leon.

“We have always been proud of our eclectic line-up, selling both genre films under our Riptide banner and prestige pictures under our Watermark Banner,” Shoreline CEO Morris Ruskin said. “But now we feel confident in our abilities to sell good films regardless of their genre and language around the world, and we are proud to have strong personal and powerful films like Undertow to bring into the worldwide marketplace.

Topics