Portuguese Documentary About Mountaineers Against Climate Change Seeks Spanish Co-Producer

The Second Edition Of The València Film Afers Industrial Forum Promotes The Exchange Between Local Producers And Others From The Mediterranean Basin.

The Centro de Estudios Superiores Barreira Arte + Diseño, the only non-Italian branch of the prestigious Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, has been the setting for an unusual number of presentations and meetings between producers from different parts of the Mediterranean and others from different European latitudes during the second edition of the València Film Afers co-production forum. This year, the international presence has been maintained and the interest of Valencian producers in attending has grown.

Five creative documentaries and five fiction projects from countries in the Mediterranean basin such as France, Spain, Morocco, Lebanon, Croatia, Portugal and Turkey were chosen so that their producers and directors could participate in different pitching sessions and one-to-one meetings with internationally renowned professionals.

Among them was the Valencian production ‘Calle de Los Ángeles’, an autofiction documentary that deals with the gentrification of the Cabanyal neighbourhood, directed and produced by Silvia Rey Canudo, who has noted that the problem of access to housing is of interest to Mediterranean producers, but is surprised by the interest that her project has aroused in countries like Belgium: “The dream of having a house near the beach in a city like Valencia is even greater in Northern countries”. Among these international scouts were the Belgian Andre Logie -producer, among other films, of ‘Little Lies of No Importance’ (2010) and ‘The Death of Stalin’ (2017)-, the German Flora Rumpler -producer of ‘Quo vais, Aida? ‘(2020) or the Swiss -‘The Swallows of Kabul’ (2019).

Another of the projects selected “made in” València is ‘Donant la nota’, a comedy in Valencian produced by Gaia Audiovisuals, which is Abdelatif Hwidar’s first feature film, in which a star with the profile of Ricky Martin or David Bisbal meets a supposed secret son. Its screenwriter, Paco Enlaluna, is satisfied: “There are countries with which it is difficult to establish a co-production because we have to shoot everything indoors, but we have seen many possibilities in others, for example with France”.

Among the repeaters, Portuguese producer Paulo Carneiro, who, thanks to the forum, sees it easier to close a co-production with Spain for his project ‘Penitentes’, directed by Diogo Pereira, a documentary about mountaineers fighting against climate change. For his part, Turkey’s Suraj Sharma, leaves smiling with the ten bilateral meetings he has had to seek co-production for ‘Right Where I Left You’: “We have made many contacts that can help us in the future”. This is what most of the attendees agree on, that it will be much easier to think of international travelling companions once they have shared a couple of intense days in Valencia.

On the other side, on the buyers’ side, Nuria Landete of Sideral Cinema (production company, distributor and sales agent in Madrid) told Mostra de València: “The VFA has not only chosen the projects very well, but also the scouts, because, as well as being very well organised, they have established enough networking activities to generate enough trust in the group to allow us to consider working together without knowing each other beforehand”. She says he has entered into talks with two projects, one national and one international, but does not say if it is one of the others: ‘¿Es usted secuestrable?’, the first feature film by Charli Bujosa from Mallorca; ‘Flying Elephants’, directed by Mona Khaouli and produced by Easy Riders Films (France) and Madame Le Tapis (Lebanon); ‘Grand Petit Frère/Little Big Brother’, the first feature film by Moroccan Karima Guennouni, produced by Janaprod; ‘Beirut, journal d’un effondrement’, directed by French-Lebanese filmmaker Katia Jarjoura and produced by Les Films de l’Après-Midi (France); ‘Jusqu’à l’aube/Until Dawn’, produced by Ouarzazate Films, the new project by Mohamed Zineddaine, award-winning director of ‘La Guérisseuse’ and based on a novel by Mohamed Zefzaf; or ‘Viktorija’, directed by Luka Galešić and produced by Cobra Chicks (Croatia), an acid comedy that narrates the liberation of a mature, bitter, virgin woman who is reborn to life after admitting her sick mother to a nursing home.

The 38th Mostra de València-Cinema del Mediterrani is organised by the València City Council with the collaboration of the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC), the Palau de la Música, Barreira Arte + Diseño and À Punt Mèdia as the official media.