16/05/2023 - Close Your Eyes is a real standout in the Spanish sales agency’s catalogue

Víctor Erice, who was on the Croisette in 1992 with Dream of Light (Jury Prize and FIPRESCI), returns to Cannes Festival thirty years later with his next solo feature, Close Your Eyes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. This time out of competition (Cannes Première section), and can be described as a historic moment for Spanish cinema. We are talking about the author of an undisputed masterpiece (now half a century old, but from which present-day filmmakers such as Carla Simón and Estíbaliz Urresola continue to drink) such as El espíritu de la colmena, starring a young Ana Torrent who also takes part, alongside Solo, María León and José Coronado, in this new film produced by Tandem Films with Pecado Films and Argentina's Pampa Films which leads the catalogue of the sales agency Film Factory Entertainment for the Marché du Film (from 16 to 24 May).

Also notable among the films in Film Factory is Blondi, a co-production between Argentina, United States and Spain directed by the actress Dolores Fonzi, known for her work in Paulina [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Truman [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Cesc Gay
film profile] and The Summit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Santiago Mitre
film profile], with a cast –Carla Peterson, Rita Cortese, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Toto Rovito and the director herself– who won awards at the recent BAFICI.

Among the films already in production at Film Factory are Caída libre (Free Falling), the second feature film for Laura Jou (Life without Sara Amat [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), produced by Juan Antonio Bayona and his usual partner Belén Atienza, and starring Spain’s scream queen Belén Rueda; the folk horror tragedy La espera (The Wait), by F. Javier Gutiérrez (Before The Fall), with Víctor Clavijo, Luis Callejo and Ruth Díaz (currently in post-production); as well as El otro hijo, by Juan Sebastián Quebrada (Colombia/France/Argentina), also in post-production; plus the project Escape, by Rodrigo Cortés (Buried [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Cortés
film profile], Love Gets a Room [+see also:
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Cortés
film profile]), with Mario Casas and Anna Castillo and produced by Nostromo Pictures; also El llanto (The Wailing), Pedro Martín Calero’s horror debut, a co-production  between Spain, France and Argentina whose screenplay is written by the award-winning Isabel Peña (The Beasts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Isabe…
film profile]) and starring Ester Expósito (read more).

Completing this catalogue La ternura (The Tenderness), a new comedy from Vicente Villanueva (El juego de las llaves [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), a sentimental satire written by Alfredo Sanzol with a cast headed by Emma Suárez, Gonzalo de Castro, Alexandra Jiménez and Carlos Cuevas (read more); Something Is About to Happen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Spain/Romania), by Antonio Méndez Esparza, with Malena Alterio; Upon Open Sky, a co-production between Mexico and Spain that marks the debut of the siblings Mariana y Santiago Arriaga, a border thriller written by their father, Guillermo Arriaga, praised for the plots of Amores perros, Babel and 21 gramos; and Como Dios manda (How to Become a Modern Man), a feelgood movie directed by newcomer Paz Jiménez starring comedian Leo Harlem which arrives in Spanish cinemas on 2 June.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)