Juan Pablo Rebella, one ofLatin America's most talented young screenwriters and directors, is reported tohave committed suicide yesterday. His body was found at his house inMontevideo, Uruguay. He was only 32.

Rebella and his longtimecollaborator Pablo Stoll co-directed two shorts and two acclaimed features.They made their debut with 25 Watts,a $26,000 film about a group of slackers shot in black and white which ended upwinning two prizes, included the VPRO Tiger Award, at the Rotterdam FilmFestival in 2001.

Their second film was therichly melancholic comedy Whisky,winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and the Regard Original Award at Cannes in 2004.

Whisky, a co-production between Ctrl Z Films (Uruguay),Rizoma Films (Argentina), Wanda Vision (Spain) and Pandora (Germany), was the storyof a lonely 60-year-old man.

It went on to win prizes atThessaloniki, Tokyo, Huelva, Havana, Gramado and Valencia and was a commercialsuccess in Uruguay where 40.000 tickets were sold, Argentina (70.000admissions), Spain (150.000 admissions), France and many other territories.

Influenced by Jim Jarmusch'sfilms and New Argentinian Cinema auteurs, such as Raul Perrone and PabloTrapero, Rebella and Stoll had also founded their own film production anddistribution company, Ctrl Z Films, with with Fernando Epstein.

Through Ctrl Z Films theydeveloped and released 25 Watts, Whisky and other feature films, video clips and TV series.

They also co-produced therecent Rotterdam Tiger winner, The Dog Pound, directed by their former assistant Manolo Nieto.

Rebella and Stoll were aboutto start shooting their third film.