Veha

Source: Courtesy of SIFF

‘Veha’ is being showcased in WIP Europa

The international industry is in San Sebastian this week to make connections with filmmakers from Spain and Latin America.

The Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum (Sept 22-34) is showcasing 15 projects with some financing already attached. They include include Nicaraguan director Laura Baumeister’s What Follows Is My Death, produced by Mexico’s Tarco, Colombian director Jacques Toulemonde’s Hijas del Agua, produced by Colombia’s 64AFilms, and Argentinian director María Astrauskas’s Patrimony, produced by Buenos Aries-based Pablo Giorgelli Cine and Tarea Fina.

For projects at an earlier stage, the prestigious Ikusmira Berriak is for emerging Spanish and international talents. Organised with the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture and the Elías Querejeta Film School (EQZE), it is comprised of two development residences for six filmmakers that take place in San Sebastian, the second of which coincides with the festival.

For three days from September 22-24 the projects are presented to potential partners. The projects are: Daniel Soares’s 900 Tons (produced by Portugal’s O Som e a Fúria), Fede Gianni’s Cowboy Billi (Italy’s Kino Produzioni, Spain’s Lastor Media), Kathy Mitrani’s The Dance Of The Shadows (France’s Eddy Cinema), Jaime Puertas Castillo’s Return To The Valley (Spain’s Películas María), and Alexandra Latishev Salazar’s Sirens (Costa Rica’s Linterna Films).

Previous titles supported by the Ikusmira Berriak programme include Jaione Camborda’s O Corno, winner of the 2024 SSIFF Golden Shell, and Elena Martín’s Creatura, which took the Directors’ Fortnight Europa Cinemas Label at Cannes in 2023 .

In WIP Europa, German producers produce three of the four projects. Lovers Sleep Alone (working title) is the debut of Iranian director Massih Parsaei, co-written with Hanna Thomschke, and explores loneliness and queer identity in exile. It is produced by Germany’s Filmfive and Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf.

Also a debut, February, Seven Days by German-Ukrainian director Tatjana Moutchnik, is produced by Germany’s Wood Water Films and Austria’s Wega Film. It follows two estranged Ukrainian brothers who reunite to mourn their mother.

“It’s about everyday life in a state of emergency and the sense of responsibility toward one’s country and family,” note the producers.

Finally, Somewhere Between Sleep, produced by France’s Trance Films with Germany’s Jonas Bak and Jasper Wiedhöft, marks Bak’s second feature, “It is a film about loneliness, tackling anxiety and living with uncertainty,” Bak explains.

Also in WIP Europa is Elif Sözen’s Veha, produced by Turkey’s Kalavara Film, as a co-production with France’s Les Film d’Ici and with support from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Fund.

“I would describe it as a psychological drama about family pressure, bonds of friendship and patriarchal oppression,” explains Sözen.

Four projects are being presented in WIP Latam. Two have Mexican directors attached; Fernando Eimbcke’s Flies and Fernanda Tovar’s Sad Girls, a Mexico-France-Spain co-production.

Chilean animation duo Joaquin Cociña and Cristóbal León are directing The Neverending Plague, a co-production between Chile, The Netherlands, Uruguay, Germany and France, while Colombia-US coproduction We Were No Longer Five is being directed by Colombia’s Esteban Hoyos García and Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez.

The Lau Haizetara documentary strand will present 16 international projects. Organised by EPE-IBAIA, the Basque association of independent producers, in collaboration with the festival, it features buzzy titles including Roser Corella and Aziza Zahra

Naeimi’s Fragments Of Home from Germany, Renan Flumian’s Mariana x BHP , a Brazil-Chile co-prouction, Pedro Speroni’s Talia After Talia, from Argentina, Afsaneh Salari’s Tehran, Auto-Immune, a France- Sweden collaboration and Montserrat Bover Rabionet and Núria Vilà’s No Consent from Spanish and Italian partners.

 

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