The world premiere of "La Roya" in New Directors, the participation of "Amparo" in Horizontes Latinos, and "Un varón" and "Donde comienza el río" in the industry sections are Colombias contributions to the 69th edition of the festival.
La roya tells the story of Jorge, a 27-year-old young man who is the only one from his class who decided to stay in the countryside working as a coffee farmer. During the town’s festivities, he is reunited with his friends and former sweetheart. In the midst of the celebration, Jorge is confronted with past memories and discovers that everything that once united them has been fading.
This Colombian-French co-production is the second feature film written and directed by Juan Sebastián Mesa (Los nadie, 2016), produced by the Colombian company Monociclo Cine, co-produced with Dublin Films, and will have its world premiere in the New Directors section of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, which will celebrate its 69th edition in Spain from September 17 to 25. This festival, created in 1953, is accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations (FIAPHF) as one of the category A festivals and is considered the most important in Ibero-America and one of the most prestigious in Europe.
New Directors is an exclusive international competition for first or second feature films by young and outstanding filmmakers; the winner of the section, judged by Belén Funes, Aistė Diriūtė and Ariel Schweitzer this year, will receive the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, in addition to €50,000.
Horizontes Latinos offers a selection of feature films of the year, unreleased in Spain, produced completely or partially in Latin America, directed by Latino filmmakers or with Latino communities in the rest of the world as their framework or theme. All the films in this section are eligible for the Horizontes Award, which includes €35,000 for the director and distributor in Spain.
This section includes Amparo, the first feature film by Antioquian director Simón Mesa Soto, produced by Juan Sarmiento, which is set in Colombia in 1998 and tells the story of Elías, Amparo’s eldest son, who is eligible for compulsory military service and is assigned to a remote and dangerous battalion. Although Elías is a difficult young man and does not work or study, his mother will go to great lengths to prevent him from being sent away. The film arrives to San Sebastián after its recent screening at the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week, where it’s leading actress, Sandra Melissa Torres, won the Best Actress Award.
The Colombian presence is joined by Un varón, a project that won the Production Stimulus of the Film Development Fund (FDC) 2018, opera prima by Fabián Hernández, produced by Manuel Ruiz Montealegre and Medio de Contención Producciones, which will be presented at the WIP Latam aimed at Latin American productions in the post-production stage with the intention of supporting their completion processes. This production tells the story of Carlos, a 16-year-old boy who explores his identity and struggles to break free from the prevailing stereotypes of masculinity in his environment. The project received the Torino Film Lab Production Award in 2018 and was selected to participate in L’Atelier at the Cannes Film Festival in 2020.
Finally, Donde comienza el rÍo by Juan Andrés Arango (La Playa D.C., X500), a feature film produced by Paola Pérez Nieto (La tierra y la sombra, Memoria) at the helm of Inercia Películas, will participate in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, an event that promotes the development of audiovisual projects, fosters collaboration among professionals, and improves their access to new international markets. The film revolves around the story of Yajaira, a young Embera woman, and Jhon, a young man belonging to one of Bogotá’s most feared gangs, who embark on a long journey by land and water from the capital to the remote Andágueda River in the jungles of the Colombian Pacific. Yajaira has the intention of finding herself while Jhon needs to flee. Only the jungle in its immense wisdom will decide if they should continue together in search of what they are made of or if they should go their separate ways.
