28/01/2019 - The Italian sales agent is investing primarily in LGBT films from South and Central America, which will have pride of place on its market slate

With a special focus on titles from South and Central America as well as LGBT themes, Italian international sales agent The Open Reel is gearing up for the 69^th Berlin International Film Festival and the accompanying European Film Market.

All set to enjoy its world premiere in the Forum section of the Berlinale, Homing [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] is Helvécio Marins Jr’s sophomore film. Set in the bucolic Brazilian countryside, the story follows Marcelo (Marcelo di Souza), an easy-going cowboy on a cattle farm who lives for his passion, rodeos. After a tragic incident that has a profound effect on him, Marcelo tries to slowly overcome the trauma and start dreaming again. The Brazilian filmmaker is a regular at film festivals, and in fact, his debut, Swirl [+see also:
trailer
film profile], was awarded at the 68^th Venice Film Festival. Filmed on a farm in the northwest of Minas Gerais, Homing is a Brazilian-German co-production by Eliane Ferreira and Pablo Iraola of Muiraquitã Films, with acclaimed Brazilian director-producer Walter Salles (Videofilmes) and Gudula Meinzolt for Autentika Films. It was supported by the German World Cinema Fund, which is closely linked to the Berlinale, and the Swiss Visions Sud Est fund.

At the EFM, The Open Reel will be presenting its latest acquisitions. A two-time winner of the Teddy Award, for Your Being Love Will Never End (2003) and Raging Sun, Raging Sky, Mexican filmmaker Julián Hernández is now directing his newest feature, Tattoo of Revenge. Set in Mexico City in the 1990s, as chaos and criminality reign supreme, the heroine of the film becomes an avenger, taking revenge on behalf of young female rape victims. Wearing different disguises, she seduces the rapists, drugs them and then brands them with tattoos.

Another title hailing from Brazil is Mr. Leather, directed by Daniel Nolascor. The film focuses on the second edition of the Mr Leather Brazil competition. Four participants battle it out for the top prize, and the winner will be crowned by Dom Barbudo, the country’s first-ever Mr Leather. The contest promotes leather culture and simultaneously stirs the spirits of the gay fetish community in São Paulo.

The latest acquisition by The Open Reel that will feature on its EFM line-up comes from Colombia and is Second Star on the Right, the sophomore feature by Valencian-born Ruth Caudeli, whose debut, Eva and Candela, is currently touring various international film festivals. Thirty-something Emilia is bisexual and refuses to grow up like her female friends. While some of them are getting married and have great careers, Emilia still lives with her mother, and tries to salvage her relationship with Mariana and her failing career as an actress. When all of her friends get together for a hen do, they discover that it is not only Emilia who is unhappy with her life.

Finally, the market slate for The Open Reel also includes Belgian director Jelle Stroo’s (Egoïste) sophomore feature, La Deuxième [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which the Italian outfit recently acquired (see the news).