09/10/2006

Agustín Díaz Yanes' Alastriste [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] leads the contingent of four Spanish titles to screen in the first Rome International Film Festival (October 13-21). The film will be shown in the Première section, while The Mist in the Palm Trees by Lola Salvador and Carlos Molinero will screen in the Extra section.

The other two titles are Iñaki Arteta's Thirteen Among a Thousand and Santiago Tebernero Palacios's Life in Colour, both part of the parallel New Cinema Network section.

Alastriste is the most expensive Spanish production ever (€24m) and one of the most successful titles at this year's local box office: nearly 200,000 admissions and a gross of over €9.2m are currently threatening to topple Almodóvar's Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile] from the number one spot.

Starring US actor Viggo Mortensen alongside two of Spain's most popular male actors – Eduardo Noriega and Javier Camara – the film will have it’s first European film festival screening in Rome, after last month's international première in Toronto. Paris-based TF1 International is handling international sales.

Roman audiences will also have an opportunity to judge documentary The Mist in the Palm Trees, which was the top winner of DIBA's (Barcelona's Digital Festival) second edition, with two prizes: Best Directing and Best Feature Film. Produced by Madrid-based Brothers & Sisters, which is also managing international sales, the film follows the recollections of Auturian photographer and physician Santiago Bergson, from his student years in Germany through to his collaboration in the Manhattan Project, whose final result was the production of the atomic bomb.

Thirteen Among a Thousand by Arteta (production: Leize Producciones; international sales: Notro Films) is a documentary based on 13 interviews, which reflects on the impact of ETA terrorism on Spanish society over the last 30 years. The theme had been previously broached by the Basque director in other films, such as Voces sin libertad.

Together with Arteta's film in the New Cinema Network – Europe section is Tabernero's directorial debut Life in Colour, an ensemble film set in the 1970s that focuses on the growing-up process of a 14-year old boy and simultaneously portrays a life in a neighbourhood. Artera received a Goya nomination in the Best New Director category and his first feature was seen by nearly 45,000 cinemagoers in Spain. World sales are being handled by Bulbeck & Mas .