Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz has started shooting his eighth fiction feature, Motel Destino which is being sold internationally by The Match Factory.
The project marks a return to the director’s roots after his first English language production, Firebrand starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law, debuted in Cannes Competition this year.
Motel Destino is being shot in the Brazilian state of Ceará, the director’s home state, and features two local talents, Iago Xavier and Nataly Rocha - selected through auditions from more than 500 actors - in the lead roles, alongside the Emmy nominated actor Fábio Assunção (Songs of Betrayal).
Eroticism, a recurring element in Karim Aïnouz’s filmography, serves as the backdrop for Motel Destino. The motel that gives the film its title is according to Aïnouz “the main character of the plot” and the place where chronic issues of Brazilian reality intersect. The film is billed as an intimate picture of a youth whose future has been stolen by a toxic and oppressive elite, against which rebellion and violence are often the only possible way out.
“Motel Destino is, above all, a love story. The love between a peripheral young man who lives against a system that wants him dead and a woman who resists the attacks of patriarchy against her own life,” said Aïnouz, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 for Invisible Life.
“Motel Destino is the Brazilian saga of the encounter between a person on the run, utterly helpless, and another who is being crushed in an abusive marriage.”
“I’m very interested in talking about crime, not sordid crime, but crime as the only escape from the place we are living in, the world we live in. How do you beat absolute helplessness? It’s a theme very present in contemporary Brazil. It’s not about being victimized, but rather completely marginalised,” added Aïnouz.
The narrative was born from Aïnouz’s partnership with the Script Laboratory of Porto Iracema das Artes, a school for students from the public educational system, based in Fortaleza, where he serves as one of the mentors. There he discovered and invited writer Wislan Esmeraldo to develop the script for the project. Later, Esmeraldo was joined by Mauricio Zacharias, who also worked on Aïnouz’s Madame Satã (Un Certain Regard 2002) and Love for Sale (Venice Orizzonti 2006).
French DoP Hélène Louvart (Invisible Life, Firebrand) handles the cinematography, while Marcos Pedroso (Madame Satã, Love for Sale), is in charge of the production pesign.
After Motel Destino, Aïnouz will shift his focus to Rosebushpruning, his second English-language project. The film will star Kristen Stewart, Josh O’Connor, and Elle Fanning with production set to begin in spring 2024. The Match Factory together with MUBI announced the project at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Motel Destino is produced by Cinema Inflamável and Gullane, in co-production with Globo Filmes, Telecine, Canal Brasil (Brazil), Maneki Films (France) and The Match Factory (Germany) and in association with Brouhaha Entertainment and Written Rock (United Kingdom). Pandora Filmes is responsible for distribution in Brazil.
The project is supported by the Department of Culture of the State of Ceará. The Match Factory sells the international rights and also represents several of Aïnouz’s films such as Mariner of the Mountains (2021), Invisible Life (2019) and Praia do Futuro (2014).
Aïnouz is represented by Lark Management and CAA.
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