Belén

Source: SSIFF

Belén

Three Argentinian titlest in official selection head a strong Latin American presence at this week’s San Sebastián International Film Festival (Sept 19-27).

Films from across the continent make their mark in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak and Nest showcases, while there is a Latin American presence in the Made in Spain strand including films from Argentinian directors Agustina Macri and Albertina Carri.

Official Selection 

Surprisingly, given the country’s uncertain political and financial climate, Argentina brings three projects to the official section, all three directed by actor-directors.

First up is 27 Nights which opened the festival on Friday. Directed by prolific Uruguayan actor and filmmaker Daniel Hendler, whose A Loose End   screened in the Spotlight section at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, the film is produced by Agustina Llambí and Santiago Mitre’s La Unión de los Ríos for Netflix.

Hendler also stars alongside Marilú Marini in the film which takes elder abuse and fashions it into a comedy drama about an elderly woman whose daughters commit her to a psychiatric institution because, they claim, she is squandering her fortune.

Argentina is also represented by Belén, the second film from actor-director and San Sebastian regular Dolores Fonzi. Based on a true story, the courtroom drama sees a young woman who enters a hospital in pain and unaware she is pregnant, only to wake up in handcuffs and facing a charge of abortion. Fonzi also stars in the film which Leticia Cristi and Matías Mosteirín’s K&S Films has produced for Amazon Prime. Fonzi previously starred in competition titles The Aura, Truman and Fever Dream.

Also competing is The Currents, produced by Switzerland’s Alina Film with Argentina’s Ruda Cine and being sold by Luxbox. Directed by Swiss-Argentinian filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler, The Currents premiered in Toronto’s Platform section and portrays a successful Buenos Aires fashion designer whose life unravels after a work trip goes wrong.

New Directors

Emerging Latin American talent also features in the New Directors strand. Costa Rican filmmaker Kim Torres presents her debut, If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light Up The Night? based on the director’s short film Night Light which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. Set in a rural village, the film blends supernatural and thriller elements to tell the story of a young girl who learns the village to which she has moved hides a dark secret that haunts the women she loves most.

The project has passed through a raft of development platforms, including WIP Latam and Proyecta 2022. Produced by Ale Vargas’s Noche Negra Producciones (Costa Rica) with Mexico’s Tropical Films and France’s Les Films du Clan, the film is handled internationally by France’s Urban Sales.

Horizontes Latinos 

The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo

Source: SSIFF

The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo

Twelve Latin American titles by Latin filmmakers or centered on Latin communities worldwide, none of which have yet been seen in Spain, are in the running for the Horizontes Award of €35,000. The prize is split between the majority producer and the Spanish distributor. Most of the 12 have debuted at major international festivals outside Spain. 

Simón Mesa Soto’s A Poet  was the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize-winner this year and last week was confirmed as Colombia’s submission for the Oscars. Ubeimar Rios makes his acting debut in the darkly comedy tale about a failed writer who wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor until he sees the opportunity to mentor a young student as his shot at redemption.

France’s Luxbox is selling the film which is produced by Colombia’s Medio de Contención, with German and Swedish partners.

Mexico’s Fernando Eimbcke has  two films at the festival. Flies is part of the WIP Latam work-in-progress strand while his latest Olmo is screening in Horizontes Latinos. A Mexico-US co-production between Eréndira Núñez and Michel Franco’s Teorema and Brad Pitt’s Plan B, the comedy drama follows a teenage boy torn between carefree fun and heavy family responsibilities. The film is handled internationally by UK’s Global Constellation.

Mexico also participated in Lucrecia Martel’s Landmarks, which is produced by Argentina’s Rei Pictures in co-production with the US, Mexico, The Netherlands, France and Denmark. This is the first documentary from the award-winning director whose credits include The Headless Woman  and Zama, and focuses on the 2009 killing of Javier Chocobar, the leader of the Indigenous community of Chuschagasta in northern Argentina. The Match Factory has international sales.

Chile, meanwhile, is represented by the Horizontes Latinos opening and closing films. Opening the section is Limpia from Dominga Sotomayor who won the best director award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2018 with Too Late To Die Young. The psychological thriller exploring the fraught relationship between housemaid Estela and the young girl she tends to around the clock is produced by the Larraín brothers’ Fábula for Netflix.

Closing the section is Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo produced by Quijote Films with France’s Les Valseurs and partners in Germany, Spain and Belgium. Winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2025, this feature debut will represent Chile in the Oscars’ international feature category. Set in the early 80s in the Chilean desert, it blends together a mixture of melodrama, western and coming of age tale to create an indignant AIDS-era story. Charades is selling internat

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