With Los reyes del mundo (The Kings of the World) in the Official Selection, three co-productions in Horizontes Latinos, and two projects in the industry sections, Colombian cinema will be present at the 70th edition of the festival from September 16 to 24. Proimágenes Colombia will have a delegation to support this participation.
Los reyes del mundo tells the story of Rá (19), Culebro (16), Sere (14), Winny (12), and Nano (13), five street kids from Medellín, five kings without a kingdom. After receiving a letter from the land restitution office notifying the return of land that was taken from Rá's grandmother, they decide to embark on a journey with the promise of finally fulfilling their dream: to have a place in the world for themselves where they can be free and safe and build their own kingdom.
The film is a beneficiary of the Comprehensive Stimulus of the Film Development Fund (FDC). Directed by Laura Mora and produced by Cristina Gallego and Mirlanda Torres Zapata, it will be part of the Official Selection at San Sebastian. This is the second Colombian production to be part of this competition. Its director is also the first Colombian to be selected for an A-Class Festival's official feature film competition, following the steps of Victor Gaviria in Cannes and San Sebastian, Sergio Cabrera and Ciro Guerra in Venice, and Spiros Stathoulopoulos in Berlin.
Los reyes del mundo is co-produced by Colombian companies Ciudad Lunar Producciones and La Selva Cine, Iris Productions (Luxembourg), Tu Vas Voir (France), Mer Films (Norway) and Talipot Studio (Mexico). Film Factory manages its international sales. In addition to the FDC, it received the Films in Development Award at the Toulouse Latin Film Festival and was selected for the Sundance Lab - Morelia (2019).
Also, there are three films in Horizontes Latinos, a selection of feature films from last year, unreleased in Spain, totally or partially produced in Latin America and directed by filmmakers of Latin origin, or that have Latin communities in the rest of the world as a framework or theme. The first of these is Andrés Ramírez Pulido's debut feature, La jauría (The Pack). The film portrays Eliú, a young man serving a sentence for murder in an experimental rehabilitation center in the middle of the jungle. When his best friend and accomplice is transferred to the same place, the two must reconstruct their crime and confront a past that Eliú wants to leave behind. Amid therapy and hard labor, Eliú will face the darkness of human nature and try to escape his own before it is too late. The Colombian-French co-production arrives at San Sebastian after receiving the Grand Prix and the SACD Award for Best Screenplay at the most recent edition of the Cannes Film Festival's Critics' Week and being part of the Contemporary World section.
After its screening in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, Fabián Hernández's Un varón (A Male) arrives at Horizontes Latinos. It is Christmas, and Carlos, who lives in a youth hostel in downtown Bogota, longs to spend the day with his family. After leaving the shelter for the year-end break, Carlos faces the brutality of his neighborhood, ruled by the law of the strongest, the alpha male. Carlos must prove that he can be one of them, but in his conscience, these manifestations of masculinity clash with the decisions he must make to survive. This co-production between Colombia, France, the Netherlands, and Germany was part of the WIP Latam at San Sebastian in 2021. It recently participated in the 26th Lima Film Festival, receiving four awards in the Fiction Competition.
Finally, this section will feature Vicenta B. by Cuban Carlos Lechuga, a co-production between Cuba, France, the United States, Colombia, and Norway. This film was also part of the WIP Latam at San Sebastian in 2021 and will have its world premiere in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto Film Festival. Vicenta Bravo has the unique gift of reading cards and unraveling people's futures. Every day she welcomes people into her home looking for a solution to their problems. Vicenta lives in harmony with her son until he decides to leave Cuba, and everything begins to fall apart. Absorbed in a crisis that keeps her from seeing what is happening around her, Vicenta sets out on a journey inland where everyone seems to have lost faith.
Regarding the industry sections, Sandra (Colombia, Chile) by Yennifer Uribe Alzate will be in WIP Latam. This section replaced Films in Progress at the festival and focuses on Latin American films in post-production. Sandra is produced by Monociclo Cine and portrays the life journey of a single mother, a security guard embarking on a path to freedom through her own experience of desire after a love affair with a bus driver. Lovers go home! (El lugar donde no estoy), directed by Juan Sebastián Mesa and produced by Rhayuela, will be in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. The section aims to promote filmmaking and foster collaboration among professionals while boosting their access to new international markets.
