“I’m Nevenka,” a Movistar Plus+ original film and the awaited next feature from Spain’s Iciar Bollaín, has closed its earliest pre-sales, struck by Film Factory Entertainment, including a bellwether deal in France.
The deals come as “I’m Nevenka” has wrapped production, shooting in the Basque city of Bilbao before transferring to rural Zamora, western Spain.
Daniel Chabannes’ Epicentre Films, a classic 30-year-old distributor and producer of non-English language art pics, especially from Europe and Latin America, whose recent acquisitions take in San Sebastian Gold Shell winner “The Rye Horn” and Amos Gitai’s “It’s Not Over,” has acquired French rights.
A distributor of both big Cannes winners – “Triangle of Sadness,” “Rosetta,” “The Child” – and slightly more out-there propositions, such as Pablo Berger’s silent movie “Blancanieves,” Xenix Film Distribution has clinched rights to Switzerland.
Iciar Bollaín: A Broader Audience Auteur
The early pre-sales are hardly surprising. Since her big breakout,...
The deals come as “I’m Nevenka” has wrapped production, shooting in the Basque city of Bilbao before transferring to rural Zamora, western Spain.
Daniel Chabannes’ Epicentre Films, a classic 30-year-old distributor and producer of non-English language art pics, especially from Europe and Latin America, whose recent acquisitions take in San Sebastian Gold Shell winner “The Rye Horn” and Amos Gitai’s “It’s Not Over,” has acquired French rights.
A distributor of both big Cannes winners – “Triangle of Sadness,” “Rosetta,” “The Child” – and slightly more out-there propositions, such as Pablo Berger’s silent movie “Blancanieves,” Xenix Film Distribution has clinched rights to Switzerland.
Iciar Bollaín: A Broader Audience Auteur
The early pre-sales are hardly surprising. Since her big breakout,...
- 4/3/2024
- by Pablo Sandoval and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Telefonica’s Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest pay TV-svod operator, is set to co-produce new movies from Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Iciar Bollaín, Alberto Rodríguez, Óliver Laxe and Ana Rujas. It’s a move which sees the high-end Spanish TV powerhouse become one of Spain’s most significant movie players.
Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
The acclaimed “La Mesías,” the latest series from Los Javis – as Ambrossi and Calvo are known – will have its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will the only European series at this year’s event.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will...
Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
The acclaimed “La Mesías,” the latest series from Los Javis – as Ambrossi and Calvo are known – will have its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will the only European series at this year’s event.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will...
- 1/18/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Spanish distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, broadcasters and platforms st the Merci market.
Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week, will host an expanded third edition of Spain’s Independent Film Market for the first time from October 25-27.
Known as Merci Valladolid, the market is jointly organised by Seminci and the Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine).
The market used to be held at the Seville European Film Festival, which was previously run by Seminici’s new director José Luis Cienfuegos.
Sixteen Spanish independent distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, television networks and platforms at Merci Valladolid.
Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week, will host an expanded third edition of Spain’s Independent Film Market for the first time from October 25-27.
Known as Merci Valladolid, the market is jointly organised by Seminci and the Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine).
The market used to be held at the Seville European Film Festival, which was previously run by Seminici’s new director José Luis Cienfuegos.
Sixteen Spanish independent distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, television networks and platforms at Merci Valladolid.
- 10/24/2023
- by Emilio Mayorga
- ScreenDaily
London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation is launching sales on the remake rights of Spanish thriller “Fatum.”
Directed by Juan Gualinanes and produced by Vaca Films, the outfit behind box office successes “Sky High” and “Cell 211,” “Fatum” was released in Spain by Universal Studios on April 28. Film Constellation has already reported sales to 50 territories on the original Spanish version.
A compulsive gambler and an elite sniper’s destinies meet on a fateful day when the local betting house gets robbed. When a single gunshot is fired, the next 24 hours will set them on a race against time that will define their lives forever.
The film is headlined by a strong cast including Luis Tosar, Álex García, Elena Anaya and Arón Piper.
“Fatum” is produced by Borja Pena and Emma Lustres of Vaca Films, in association with Playtime, with the participation of Prime Video, Rtve, Crtvg,...
Directed by Juan Gualinanes and produced by Vaca Films, the outfit behind box office successes “Sky High” and “Cell 211,” “Fatum” was released in Spain by Universal Studios on April 28. Film Constellation has already reported sales to 50 territories on the original Spanish version.
A compulsive gambler and an elite sniper’s destinies meet on a fateful day when the local betting house gets robbed. When a single gunshot is fired, the next 24 hours will set them on a race against time that will define their lives forever.
The film is headlined by a strong cast including Luis Tosar, Álex García, Elena Anaya and Arón Piper.
“Fatum” is produced by Borja Pena and Emma Lustres of Vaca Films, in association with Playtime, with the participation of Prime Video, Rtve, Crtvg,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona-based production-distribution outfit Filmax has picked up international rights to Spanish holiday comedy “Our (Perfect) Xmas Retreat” (“El refugio”) following the film’s successful domestic theatrical release. Premiering in Spain on Nov. 26, the film went up against firm opposition and came away as the weekend’s top domestic release.
Filmax is introducing the film to buyers at this year’s Ventana Sur.
Macarena Astorga directs the lighthearted story about a group of people who are trapped in a hotel after a massive blizzard. She also co-wrote the film’s script, alongside Beatriz Iznaola and Alicia Luna, a Spanish Academy Goya Award-winning writer for “Take My Eyes.”
Esto Tambien Pasara, producers of Astorga’s previous feature “The House of Snails,” produced the film with Santiago Segura’s Bowfinger International Pictures (“Father There Is Only One”) and Sygnatia (“Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles”) from Spain, top Peruvian production company Tondero...
Filmax is introducing the film to buyers at this year’s Ventana Sur.
Macarena Astorga directs the lighthearted story about a group of people who are trapped in a hotel after a massive blizzard. She also co-wrote the film’s script, alongside Beatriz Iznaola and Alicia Luna, a Spanish Academy Goya Award-winning writer for “Take My Eyes.”
Esto Tambien Pasara, producers of Astorga’s previous feature “The House of Snails,” produced the film with Santiago Segura’s Bowfinger International Pictures (“Father There Is Only One”) and Sygnatia (“Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles”) from Spain, top Peruvian production company Tondero...
- 12/2/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss,” starring Javier Bardem, Alejandro Amenábar’s first drama series “La Fortuna,” and Carlos Saura’s “Rosa Rosae. A Civil War Elegy” head a robust Spanish presence at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival.
Also in the mix are new films from Jonás Trueba, Iciar Bollaín and Paco Plaza, all playing in main competition, plus Daniel Monzón’s Warner Bros.-distributed “Las leyes de la frontera,” selected as San Sebastián’s closing night film, and “The Daughter,” from Manuel Martín Cuenca. “Rosa Rosae” will screen at the San Sebastian’s opening night ceremony on Sept. 17.
World premiering at Venice, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas movie shoot comedy “Official Competition” will open San Sebastian’s best of fests section Perlak.
Spanish cinema’s socio-political traditions remain strong: “The Good Boss” is a study of company management machinations. In a highly polarized Spain, Bollaín’s “Maixabel,...
Also in the mix are new films from Jonás Trueba, Iciar Bollaín and Paco Plaza, all playing in main competition, plus Daniel Monzón’s Warner Bros.-distributed “Las leyes de la frontera,” selected as San Sebastián’s closing night film, and “The Daughter,” from Manuel Martín Cuenca. “Rosa Rosae” will screen at the San Sebastian’s opening night ceremony on Sept. 17.
World premiering at Venice, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas movie shoot comedy “Official Competition” will open San Sebastian’s best of fests section Perlak.
Spanish cinema’s socio-political traditions remain strong: “The Good Boss” is a study of company management machinations. In a highly polarized Spain, Bollaín’s “Maixabel,...
- 7/30/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The Madrilenian filmmaker is shooting her new film in Valencia; it stars Candela Peña and boasts a script written by Bollaín and Alicia Luna, who worked together on Take My Eyes. During the months of August and September, Icíar Bollaín has been filming her new feature, entitled La boda de Rosa (lit. “Rosa’s Wedding”), in different locations in and around Valencia. The title character is played by Candela Peña, who is placing herself in the capable hands of the Madrilenian director once again after doing so in her feature debut, Hola, ¿estás sola?, back in 1995, and in Take My Eyes. Also returning is her co-writer, Alicia Luna; together they penned the storyline of Take My Eyes, a drama revolving around abuse that won seven Goya Awards in 2003 (including Best Screenplay), was seen by one million viewers and grossed €5 million. According to the synopsis, the film’s main character...
Madrid — Barcelona-based Filmax has acquired world sales rights to “La Innocencia” (“The Innocence”), an uncompromising rites of passage feature which has been sparking good buzz over the summer off sneak previews in Spain.
An integrated film-tv production-distribution-sales operation, Filmax will also handle the film’s Spanish distribution.
Filmax’s Ivan Díaz will introduce “The Innocence” to buyers at a private screening at Toronto before it world premieres in competition at San Sebastian’s New Directors section, the Spanish festival’s main sidebar.
The feature debut of Spain’s Lucía Alemany confirms yet another talent-to-track young woman director based or trained in Barcelona.
Featuring Sergi López, Laia Marull and network À Punt, and Catalan public broadcaster TV3 and the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (Icec).
Penned by Laia Soler and Alemany, and drawing heavily on Alemany’s own experiences, “The Innocence” kicks off with a knowing portrait of Lis, 15, hanging out...
An integrated film-tv production-distribution-sales operation, Filmax will also handle the film’s Spanish distribution.
Filmax’s Ivan Díaz will introduce “The Innocence” to buyers at a private screening at Toronto before it world premieres in competition at San Sebastian’s New Directors section, the Spanish festival’s main sidebar.
The feature debut of Spain’s Lucía Alemany confirms yet another talent-to-track young woman director based or trained in Barcelona.
Featuring Sergi López, Laia Marull and network À Punt, and Catalan public broadcaster TV3 and the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (Icec).
Penned by Laia Soler and Alemany, and drawing heavily on Alemany’s own experiences, “The Innocence” kicks off with a knowing portrait of Lis, 15, hanging out...
- 9/4/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
To celebrate the anticipated release of Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story this week, we have the pleasure of sitting down with the film’s star and it’s writer and director to chat about this fantastic new film.
The film, directed by Iciar Bollain (Take My Eyes) and written by Paul Laverty, debuted at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival where it won Best Screenplay. Yuli follows Acosta from his childhood in a run-down neighbourhood of Havana to breaking taboos and becoming the first black artist to dance as Romeo in the Royal Ballet in London, where he forged a legendary career as a principal dancer for 17 years.
You catch watch our full interviews in the player below.
Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story opens in UK cinemas on April 12th.
The post Exclusive: Carlos Acosta, Paul Laverty and Iciar Bollain on the emotionally affecting biopic Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The film, directed by Iciar Bollain (Take My Eyes) and written by Paul Laverty, debuted at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival where it won Best Screenplay. Yuli follows Acosta from his childhood in a run-down neighbourhood of Havana to breaking taboos and becoming the first black artist to dance as Romeo in the Royal Ballet in London, where he forged a legendary career as a principal dancer for 17 years.
You catch watch our full interviews in the player below.
Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story opens in UK cinemas on April 12th.
The post Exclusive: Carlos Acosta, Paul Laverty and Iciar Bollain on the emotionally affecting biopic Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 4/11/2019
- by Scott Davis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Madrid — Sergi López and Laia Marull co-star in rites-of-passage drama “La Inocencia” (Innocence), the feature debut of Lucía Alemany, a key name in a generation of often very young women cineastes now energizing Catalan cinema.
Starring Carmen Arrufet in her first lead role, and Joel Bosqued (“Que baje dios y lo vea”), “Innocence” marks a follow-up to Alemany’s multi-prized short “14 Years and a Day.” Produced by Morena Films, and a take on adolescent angst, budding sexuality and daughter-mother conflict set in a nosy Spanish village where privacy is near impossible, the short marked out Alemany, an alum of Barcelona’s Escac film school, as very much a director to track.
In production from Aug. 6 in Alemany’s home village of Traiguera, in the region of Castellón, central eastern Spain, “Innocence” comes with strong backing. Alemany has been championed by Iciar Bollaín, one of Spain’s most foremost women directors,...
Starring Carmen Arrufet in her first lead role, and Joel Bosqued (“Que baje dios y lo vea”), “Innocence” marks a follow-up to Alemany’s multi-prized short “14 Years and a Day.” Produced by Morena Films, and a take on adolescent angst, budding sexuality and daughter-mother conflict set in a nosy Spanish village where privacy is near impossible, the short marked out Alemany, an alum of Barcelona’s Escac film school, as very much a director to track.
In production from Aug. 6 in Alemany’s home village of Traiguera, in the region of Castellón, central eastern Spain, “Innocence” comes with strong backing. Alemany has been championed by Iciar Bollaín, one of Spain’s most foremost women directors,...
- 8/20/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Icíar Bollaín, Isaki Lacuesta and Carlos Vermut to return.
The Spanish films that will be showcased at the 2018 San Sebastian Festival (21-29 September) have been revealed.
The competition titles includeYuli, directed by Icíar Bollaín, who has twice previously competed for the Golden Shellwith Take My Eyes (2003) and Mataharis (2007).
Isaki Lacuesta is also in competition with Between Two Waters. Lacuester’s The Double Steps won the Golden Shell in 2011. The new film stars the two Roma brothers who appeared as teenages in one of the his first films, La Leyenda Del Tiempo.
A further Golden Shell winner (for Magical Girl in...
The Spanish films that will be showcased at the 2018 San Sebastian Festival (21-29 September) have been revealed.
The competition titles includeYuli, directed by Icíar Bollaín, who has twice previously competed for the Golden Shellwith Take My Eyes (2003) and Mataharis (2007).
Isaki Lacuesta is also in competition with Between Two Waters. Lacuester’s The Double Steps won the Golden Shell in 2011. The new film stars the two Roma brothers who appeared as teenages in one of the his first films, La Leyenda Del Tiempo.
A further Golden Shell winner (for Magical Girl in...
- 7/20/2018
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Four of Spain’s veteran prize-winning directors will vie for the Golden Shell award in the official selection’s competition lineup at the 66th San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers unveiled Friday.
That means that the full list of Spanish films in this year’s main section is now known.
Iciar Bollain, whose Take My Eyes won best acting awards for Luis Tosar and Laia Marull, takes her third swing at the Spanish festival’s top award with Yuli, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty that is inspired by Carlos Acosta’s autobiographical No Way Home, the story of a black dancer ...
That means that the full list of Spanish films in this year’s main section is now known.
Iciar Bollain, whose Take My Eyes won best acting awards for Luis Tosar and Laia Marull, takes her third swing at the Spanish festival’s top award with Yuli, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty that is inspired by Carlos Acosta’s autobiographical No Way Home, the story of a black dancer ...
- 7/20/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Four of Spain’s veteran prize-winning directors will vie for the Golden Shell award in the official selection’s competition lineup at the 66th San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers unveiled Friday.
That means that the full list of Spanish films in this year’s main section is now known.
Iciar Bollain, whose Take My Eyes won best acting awards for Luis Tosar and Laia Marull, takes her third swing at the Spanish festival’s top award with Yuli, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty that is inspired by Carlos Acosta’s autobiographical No Way Home, the story of a black dancer ...
That means that the full list of Spanish films in this year’s main section is now known.
Iciar Bollain, whose Take My Eyes won best acting awards for Luis Tosar and Laia Marull, takes her third swing at the Spanish festival’s top award with Yuli, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty that is inspired by Carlos Acosta’s autobiographical No Way Home, the story of a black dancer ...
- 7/20/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Madrid — New movies from recent San Sebastian Golden Shell winners – Carlos Vermut’s “Quién te cantará” and Isaki Lacuesta’s “Entre dos aguas” – will screen in main competition this year along with Iciar Bollaín’s “Yuli” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Realm.”
Announcing the complete line-up of Spanish films at San Sebastian in Madrid on Friday, San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos also confirmed that Enrique Urbizu’s “Giants,” one of the most-awaited of upcoming Movistar + original series, will world premiere out of competition at the Spanish festival, the highest-profile in the Spanish-speaking world.
An explosive mix of downbeat social realism, notable style, darker psychological portraits and edgy and varying genre beats has turned Carlos Vermut (“Magical Girl”) into one of Spain’s most courted young filmmakers. A female-centric melodrama, produced by Enrique Lopez-Lavigne’s Apache Films and sold by Film Factory Entertainment, “Quién te cantará” stars Najwa Nimri (“Sex and Lucia...
Announcing the complete line-up of Spanish films at San Sebastian in Madrid on Friday, San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos also confirmed that Enrique Urbizu’s “Giants,” one of the most-awaited of upcoming Movistar + original series, will world premiere out of competition at the Spanish festival, the highest-profile in the Spanish-speaking world.
An explosive mix of downbeat social realism, notable style, darker psychological portraits and edgy and varying genre beats has turned Carlos Vermut (“Magical Girl”) into one of Spain’s most courted young filmmakers. A female-centric melodrama, produced by Enrique Lopez-Lavigne’s Apache Films and sold by Film Factory Entertainment, “Quién te cantará” stars Najwa Nimri (“Sex and Lucia...
- 7/20/2018
- by John Hopewell and Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
New York-based Greenwich Entertainment has taken U.S. rights to “The Bookshop,” directed by Isabel Coixet (“My Life Without Me,” “Elegy”), one of Spain’s most international auteurs. ”The Bookshop” is sold by Thierry Wase-Bailey’s U.K.-based Celsius Entertainment.
Greenwich Entertainment was founded last year by veteran arthouse distributor Ed Arentz, formerly managing director of Music Box Films.
“It’s a wonderful film with a significant potential in the U.S.,” Arentz said enthusiastically. He added: “The film is the film and now it’s up to us to release it properly, to find a good slot and encourage the exhibitors to support it. If all goes well, the release could do very well.”
Coixet’s twelfth feature, “The Bookshop” is produced by Spain’s A Contracorriente Films and Diagonal TV, the U.K.’s Zephyr Films and Germany’s One Two Films. It stars Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy.
Greenwich Entertainment was founded last year by veteran arthouse distributor Ed Arentz, formerly managing director of Music Box Films.
“It’s a wonderful film with a significant potential in the U.S.,” Arentz said enthusiastically. He added: “The film is the film and now it’s up to us to release it properly, to find a good slot and encourage the exhibitors to support it. If all goes well, the release could do very well.”
Coixet’s twelfth feature, “The Bookshop” is produced by Spain’s A Contracorriente Films and Diagonal TV, the U.K.’s Zephyr Films and Germany’s One Two Films. It stars Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy.
- 4/10/2018
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Te doy mis ojos (Take My Eyes) is a drama/romance directed by Iciar Bollain and jointly written by Iciar Bollain and Alicia Luna. The film stars Laia Marull, and Luis Tosar, and is about a woman who suffers abuse from a husband whom she still dearly loves.
The beginning of the film says it all: Pilar (Marull) scrambling about her apartment, waking her son from his sleep, with her hand trembling and grabbing anything she could in a short amount of time. When trying to hail a cab was not successful, she and her son took a bus. It was not until she made it to her sister Ana’s (Candela Pena) house; she breaks into tears—she was still in her house shoes. The next day, her sister goes to the apartment to retrieve some of their clothes and sees medical notices of injuries Pilar had suffered. When...
The beginning of the film says it all: Pilar (Marull) scrambling about her apartment, waking her son from his sleep, with her hand trembling and grabbing anything she could in a short amount of time. When trying to hail a cab was not successful, she and her son took a bus. It was not until she made it to her sister Ana’s (Candela Pena) house; she breaks into tears—she was still in her house shoes. The next day, her sister goes to the apartment to retrieve some of their clothes and sees medical notices of injuries Pilar had suffered. When...
- 9/2/2011
- Cinelinx
Actress and filmmaker Iciar Bollain has had a stellar career in her native Spain, directing powerful dramas such as Hi, are you alone? (1995) Flowers from Another World (1999), and her crowning opus, Te Doy Mis Ojos (2003), which won seven Goya awards including Best Picture. She returns with Even the Rain, a drama about colonialism in both the past and present. Filmmakers (led by Gael Garcia Bernal and Luis Tosar) head with their crew to a small town in Bolivia to make a movie about the Spanish conquest of Americas. The indigenous townspeople are chosen as extras not only because they look right, but also because they can be used as cheap labor. While this unconscious brand of colonialism is taking place, protests based on the real-life Cochabamba protests in 2000, where the government privatized water, threaten to put the town and the filmmakers in serious danger, and the filmmakers question their own...
- 2/14/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Mataharis
San Sebastian International Film Festival
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- With Take My Eyes, Spanish director Iciar Bollain took a powerful look the disturbing subject of domestic violence. Though it was a strong film, it perhaps lacked a certain dynamism. Now with Mataharis, she goes one better, using the little-explored world of female private detectives to look at themes of spying and betrayal and the dilemma of scruples versus ambition. And all this is done with a sharp eye for a good story.
The film should shine outside Spanish-speaking territories in the art houses in English-speaking market. The film opens in Spain on Sept. 24.
Mataharis tells the story of three women who work in the same Madrid private detective agency. Ambitious Ines (Maria Vasquez) gets a top job spying on union agitators, but falls for the handsome Diego Martin. She eventually quits rather than selling out on her principles. Eva (Najwa Nimri) uses her professional skills to discover her husband has a secret son, which threatens to split the family but finally brings them closer. Carmen (Nuria Gonzalez) is trapped in a dead marriage, but meets a client whose own marital problems prompt her finally to leave her frosty husband.
Storylines feel fresh as they enter the world of private detectives who are invariably seen as macho male figures. Bollain and her co-writer Tatiana Rodriguez skillfully intertwine the professional and personal lives of the three main protagonists so as to bring the audience closer to the characters.
Vasquez portrays a divided personality -- a snoop who she is above spying on people for a living and has some principles. Nimri is the tricked wife, who easily shows another side when she opts to forgive her husband for not telling her about the hidden son. Gonzalez talks to the plants as her husband refuses to engage in conversation but her tender words with a client about lost love hit home.
The undercover photography is also a clever touch. Inside a bar, Ines pins a tiny camera to her jacket to grab a few shots of her target and, suddenly, we there at the smoky bar with her. Bollain worked using a hand-held camera and it gives the film a documentary feel. She said: "One thing I like to do is to 'steal' the shot: Get out on the street and shoot people who don't know you are there." This works.
Mataharis deals with themes of distrust, false appearances, career vs. principles, not to mention surveillance as cameras surround us more and more. Bollain does this subtly, mixing three intertwining stories that are ultimately far more powerful and interesting for the way they deal with personal themes. So here is a private eye movie that makes us ponder the morality of that eye.
MATAHARIS
A La Iguana/Sogepaq Prod.
Credits:
Director Iciar Bollain
Writers: Iciar Bollain, Tatiana Rodriguez
Producers: Santiago Garcia de Leaniz, Simon de Santiago
Executive producer: Santiago Garcia de Leaniz
Director of photography: Kiko de la Rica
Music: Lucio Godoy
Art director: Josune Lasa
Costume: Estibaliz Markiegui
Editor: Angel Hernadez Zoido
Cast:
Eva: Najwa Nimri
Inaki: Tristan Ulloa
Ines: Maria Vazquez
Manuel Diego Martin
Carmen: Nuria Gonzalez
Sergio: Antonio de la Torre
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- With Take My Eyes, Spanish director Iciar Bollain took a powerful look the disturbing subject of domestic violence. Though it was a strong film, it perhaps lacked a certain dynamism. Now with Mataharis, she goes one better, using the little-explored world of female private detectives to look at themes of spying and betrayal and the dilemma of scruples versus ambition. And all this is done with a sharp eye for a good story.
The film should shine outside Spanish-speaking territories in the art houses in English-speaking market. The film opens in Spain on Sept. 24.
Mataharis tells the story of three women who work in the same Madrid private detective agency. Ambitious Ines (Maria Vasquez) gets a top job spying on union agitators, but falls for the handsome Diego Martin. She eventually quits rather than selling out on her principles. Eva (Najwa Nimri) uses her professional skills to discover her husband has a secret son, which threatens to split the family but finally brings them closer. Carmen (Nuria Gonzalez) is trapped in a dead marriage, but meets a client whose own marital problems prompt her finally to leave her frosty husband.
Storylines feel fresh as they enter the world of private detectives who are invariably seen as macho male figures. Bollain and her co-writer Tatiana Rodriguez skillfully intertwine the professional and personal lives of the three main protagonists so as to bring the audience closer to the characters.
Vasquez portrays a divided personality -- a snoop who she is above spying on people for a living and has some principles. Nimri is the tricked wife, who easily shows another side when she opts to forgive her husband for not telling her about the hidden son. Gonzalez talks to the plants as her husband refuses to engage in conversation but her tender words with a client about lost love hit home.
The undercover photography is also a clever touch. Inside a bar, Ines pins a tiny camera to her jacket to grab a few shots of her target and, suddenly, we there at the smoky bar with her. Bollain worked using a hand-held camera and it gives the film a documentary feel. She said: "One thing I like to do is to 'steal' the shot: Get out on the street and shoot people who don't know you are there." This works.
Mataharis deals with themes of distrust, false appearances, career vs. principles, not to mention surveillance as cameras surround us more and more. Bollain does this subtly, mixing three intertwining stories that are ultimately far more powerful and interesting for the way they deal with personal themes. So here is a private eye movie that makes us ponder the morality of that eye.
MATAHARIS
A La Iguana/Sogepaq Prod.
Credits:
Director Iciar Bollain
Writers: Iciar Bollain, Tatiana Rodriguez
Producers: Santiago Garcia de Leaniz, Simon de Santiago
Executive producer: Santiago Garcia de Leaniz
Director of photography: Kiko de la Rica
Music: Lucio Godoy
Art director: Josune Lasa
Costume: Estibaliz Markiegui
Editor: Angel Hernadez Zoido
Cast:
Eva: Najwa Nimri
Inaki: Tristan Ulloa
Ines: Maria Vazquez
Manuel Diego Martin
Carmen: Nuria Gonzalez
Sergio: Antonio de la Torre
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Everybody lies in Princesas except those who tell a truth no one wants to believe. Set in a downtrodden section of modern Madrid, director Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s latest film is a tale of two prostitutes, Caye (the formidable Candela Pena of Te Doy Mis Ojos) and Zulema (Micaela Nevarez in her screen debut), who first meet as antagonists but gradually form a friendship out of necessity and a common longing to escape their environment. Mr. de Aranoa’s screenplay is a study of loneliness and grief, of two women who tenaciously cling to myths while life relentlessly claws at their spirits. To the extent that Princesas reflects on prostitution, it refuses to embrace clichés. You won’t find any hookers with hearts of gold populating the narrative. The women who swagger down the streets and sit gossiping in the beauty salon of this hardscrabble locale have human hearts,
- 8/28/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
Indie Circle grabs 'Mataharis'
MADRID -- Distribution consortium Indie Circle has picked up rights to Iciar Bollain's Mataharis, the much-anticipated follow-up to Take My Eyes from Spain's Sogepaq, which is handling international sales, the Spanish sales agent announced Thursday. Indie Circle is made up of France's Haut et Court, Italy's Lucky Red, Belgium's Cineart, Netherland's A-Film and Switzerland's Frenetic. Mataharis is a co-production between Sogepaq's sister company Sogecine and La Iguana.
- 3/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
New Yorker Films buys 'Take My Eyes'
MADRID -- Spanish sales company Sogepaq said Friday that New Yorker Films has bought U.S. rights to Take My Eyes, Iciar Bollain's emotional Spanish drama about domestic violence. The film, produced by Producciones La Iguana and Alta Films, won seven Spanish Academy Goya Awards this year, including best film. The sale follows recently announced sales to Nikkatsu in Japan, Swipe Films in the United Kingdom and PCV in Greece.
- 8/28/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Temporada' wins 7 nods at Guadalajara
MEXICO CITY -- On the hunt for top honors at the 19th Guadalajara Film Festival, drama Temporada de Patos (Duck Season) nabbed a record-breaking seven awards, including best picture and director, at Mexico's No. 1 movie showcase. Fernando Eimbcke's debut not only won seven Mayahuel Awards and cash prizes totaling 200,000 pesos ($18,004), but it also grabbed the JVC prize, good for 500,000 pesos ($45,011), at the Thursday night ceremony. Temporada also took awards for best screenplay, actor (Enrique Arreola), actress (Danny Perea), original score and sound design. In the Iberoamerican category, best picture went to Spain's Te Doy Mis Ojos (Take My Eyes), from Iciar Bollain.
- 3/28/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Temporada' wins 7 nods at Guadalajara
MEXICO CITY -- On the hunt for top honors at the 19th Guadalajara Film Festival, drama Temporada de Patos (Duck Season) nabbed a record-breaking seven awards, including best picture and director, at Mexico's No. 1 movie showcase. Fernando Eimbcke's debut not only won seven Mayahuel Awards and cash prizes totaling 200,000 pesos ($18,004), but it also grabbed the JVC prize, good for 500,000 pesos ($45,011), at the Thursday night ceremony. Temporada also took awards for best screenplay, actor (Enrique Arreola), actress (Danny Perea), original score and sound design. In the Iberoamerican category, best picture went to Spain's Te Doy Mis Ojos (Take My Eyes), from Iciar Bollain.
- 3/28/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bollain's 'Eyes' look at 7 Goyas
MADRID -- Take My Eyes, Iciar Bollain's drama about domestic violence, cleaned up at the 18th Goya Awards, earning seven of the 29 honors in an evening that highlighted the growing prevalence of women in the Spanish film industry. Bollain's heart-wrenching tale won not only the best film award for Bollain and Santiago Garcia de Leoniz's production company La Iguana Films, along with Alta Produccion, but all the top honors including those for director (Bollain), actress (Laia Marull), actor (Luis Tosar), supporting actress (Candela Pena) and script (Bollain and Alicia Luna). For the first time, women made a powerful presence at the Goyas by winning not only the director and script nods, but those for new director (Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde for Sleeping Luck) and adapted script (Isabel Coixet for My Life Without Me). Boxoffice success Mortadelo and Filemon: The Great Adventure finished second with five nods, among them production design and editing.
- 2/1/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Goyas' focus is on 'Eyes,' give 9 noms to Bollian pic
MADRID -- Take My Eyes, Iciar Bollain's dramatic look at domestic violence, led the pack Wednesday as Spain's Film Academy announced nominations for the XVIII Goya Awards, snatching noms in nine of the 28 categories. Eyes will compete for best film against Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me, Antonio Mercero's The 4th Floor and David Trueba's Soldiers of Salamina, Spain's candidate for the foreign-language Oscar. Soldiers, a Lola Films/Fernando Trueba co-production, Life, produced by El Deseo, and Eyes, produced by La Iguana and Alta Prods., also will see their helmers vie for best director. Also nominated in the directing category is Cesc Gay for his In the City. Gay and co-writer Tomas Aragay will face off for best original script with Bollain and Alicia Luna for Eyes, Jaime Rosales and Enric Rufas for Hours of the Day and Pablo Berger for Torremolinos 73.
- 12/11/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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