Brazil’s Habanero Film Sales has introduced a slate of recent movies marking their debut at Cannes’ Marché du Film. Main the pack is Cuban filmmaker Carlos Lechuga’s newest drama, “Vicenta B” in addition to Cuba-U.S.-Canada co-production “Corrosive” and Brazilian coming-of-age drama “Bittersweet Rain” (“Saudade Fez Morada Aqui Dentro”), at present in put up.
“Resistance, migration, those that keep and those that depart, discovering out who we’re, the place we belong, discovering which means to our personal existence…these are recurrent matters in our catalog, composed of options and a rising slate of social and environmental documentaries from Latin American and Caribbean administrators, with a particular deal with Cuban unbiased cinema,” stated Habanero CEO, Alfredo Calviño.
Final yr, “Vicenta B.” snagged the biggest money trade prize at San Sebastian Film Competition’s trade awards, the Egeda Platino Business Award for the Finest Work in Progress (WIP), Latin American movie.
Whereas additionally a mirrored image on the present state of affairs in Cuba, “Vicenta B” is unlikely to trigger as a lot of a stir as his 2016 drama “Santa y Andres.” Regardless of being initially chosen to play on the 38th Int’l Competition of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, it was rejected by fest backer ICAIC, Cuba’s state-run movie institute, irked by its storyline about an unlikely friendship between a homosexual novelist below home arrest and the revolutionary peasant lady despatched to thoughts him. It has by no means been launched in Cuba provided that ICAIC additionally handles distribution within the communist island nation.
“Subjects resembling soul looking, crises of religion, household isolation are frequent in Western arthouse cinema. Movies from our aspect of the world, nonetheless, are inclined to gravitate and set mild to extra hard-core visceral issues and conditions, however: What occurs when a black or poor lady has an existential disaster?” Lechuga asks about his third characteristic movie. “An existential disaster has not appeared in Cuban cinema for years,” he famous.
Within the drama, the titular Vicenta B is a revered “santera” in Havana who has the reward of clairvoyance. Whereas her enterprise thrives, she hopes that her son continues the household custom of serving to others. However he decides to to migrate and Vicenta finds herself in a disaster of religion and loses her reward. Alone, she finds herself questioning her life, but in addition unable to grasp why she has been left alone in a rustic the place everybody appears to have misplaced their religion.
“Vicenta’ can also be the story of a rustic the place there are various lonely moms. Proper now in Cuba there are various imprisoned children merely for pondering otherwise,” Lechuga stated, referring to the huge exodus from the nation and these detained through the huge protests in July final yr.
“Carlos’ movies are radically political even in these when he isn’t explicitly speaking about politics, like in ‘Vicenta B,’” noticed Patricia Martin, a associate at Habanero Film Sales.
Habanero additionally just lately picked up worldwide gross sales on Alfredo Ureta’s psychological thriller “Corrosive” that had a web-based screening on the Marché du Film on Might 20. Set through the pandemic, two younger {couples} hire a home on the outskirts of the town. What begins as an idyllic escape from the scourge devolves into petty quarrels that escalate into raging violence and a battle for survival.
In Haroldo Borges’ sophomore drama, “Bittersweet Rain,” “a younger, fatherless teen dwelling within the Brazilian heartland contracts a degenerative eye illness that may finally depart him sightless.
Different notable titles in Habanero’s lineup embrace a gaggle of women-directed options and docs, amongst them: Puerto Rican Macha Colón’s “Fragrance de Gardenias;” the coming-of-age Bolivian characteristic “Solar & Daughter” (“Cuidando al sol”) by Catalina Razzini; and from Cuba, “Mafifa” by Daniela Muñoz, that premiered at IDFA.
