Alpha Violet hedges its bets on Aquí y allá

by Fabien Lemercier

14/05/2012 - Since the last Berlinale, a new name has joined the notable, well-performing panorama of French international sales agencies: Alpha Violet. Headed by Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato (who met at Celluloid Dreams before working for UMedia), the agency that made its debut with one title in the Generation section at the German film festival (French-Israeli co-production Off White Lies by Maya Kenig) will now attend the Film Market at the 65th Cannes Film Festival (from May 16 to 27) with Aquí y allá [trailer] (lit. “Here and there” - photo) by Spanish filmmaker Antonio de Méndez Esparza, a film selected for the Critics’ Week competition at the festival.

Co-produced by Spain, the United States, and Mexico, Aquí y allá retraces a Mexican’s return to his small mountain village after years working in the United States. Charles Tesson, the Critics’ Week’s new general delegate, describes this first feature and Caméra d’Or contender as being against the tide of films depicting Mexico from the angle of extreme violence: "Gently, Aquí y allá evokes another reality, that of immigration and families torn apart. The film recounts the return home of a man who has trouble regaining his bearings as a husband with his wife and as a father with his children."

In Cannes, Alpha Violet will also continue with sales for its black-and-white Russian film Bullet Collector (recently acquired for the United States), for The Student by Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre (Jury’s Special Prize in Locarno in the Filmmakers of the Present competition), and Portuguese documentary Beyond the Mountains by Aya Koretzky.

(Translated from French)