Ten Latin American films directed by filmmakers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela will compete in the 2021 Horizontes Latinos selection at the San Sebastian Festival.

The section will open with the world premiere of Jesús López by Argentine director Maximiliano Schonfeld. Jesús López follows the transformation experienced by Abel when his cousin Jesús is killed in a car accident. The Employer and the Employee (El empleado y el patrón) by Uruguayan Manuel Nieto Zas will close the Horizontes selection.

All of the selected feature films, never screened before in Spain, totally or partially produced in Latin America, directed by filmmakers of Latin origin or with Latin communities as their theme or backdrop, compete for the Horizontes award, coming with 35,000 euros for the director of the film and its distributor in Spain.

2021 Horizontes Latinos at San Sebastian Festival

JESÚS LÓPEZ
MAXIMILIANO SCHONFELD (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – France
Cast: Lucas Schell, Joaquín Spahn, Sofía Palomino, Ia Arteta, Alfredo Zenobi, Paula Ransenberg, Romina Pinto, Benigno Lell
OPENING NIGHT FILM
WIP Latam 2020

Jesús López, a young racing driver, dies in an accident, leaving the villagers deeply shaken. His cousin Abel, a mixed-up teenager, is increasingly tempted to take his place. He moves in with Jesús’ parents, wears his clothes, goes out with his friends and ex-girlfriend. At first, people accept the change and Abel warms to the role. But the resemblance to his cousin becomes disturbing, to the point that he actually is Jesús López. A car race in memory of Jesús is organized in the village. Encouraged by his cousin’s spirit, Abel drives the dead man’s car. The outcome of the race will determine whether or not the transformation is permanent.

EL EMPLEADO Y EL PATRÓN / THE EMPLOYER AND THE EMPLOYEE
MANUEL NIETO ZAS (URUGUAY)
Country(ies) of production: Uruguay – Argentina – Brazil – France
Cast: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Cristian Borges, Justina Bustos, Fátima Quintanilla
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
WIP Latam 2020

The boss is a young man who seems to have everything, except for one pressing concern: his baby’s health. The employee is looking for a job to support his newborn child and doesn’t think twice when the boss decides to hire him to work on his land. Both meet their needs by helping one another. But one day there is an accident. The unexpected occurrence will strain the ties between them, endangering the fate of the two families. Egeda Platino Industry Award for best WIP Latam 2020.

AMPARO
SIMÓN MESA SOTO (COLOMBIA)
Country(ies) of production: Colombia – Sweden – Qatar
Cast: Sandra Melissa Torres, Diego Alejandro Tobón, Luciana Gallego, John Jairo Montoya

After a long night’s shift, Amparo, a single mother of two, returns home to find her children are not there. She soon finds out that her son Elías has been drafted during an army raid and will be sent to the front in a notorious war zone near the border. His fate seems sealed. With only a single day left until his departure, Amparo manages to contact a man who offers to alter Elias’ files and get him out. With nothing much on her side, she embarks on a race against time to free her son in a society ruled by corruption.

AURORA
PAZ FÁBREGA (COSTA RICA)
Country(ies) of production: Costa Rica – Mexico – Panama
Cast: Rebeca Woodbridge, Raquel VillalobosFilms in Progress 37

Surrogacy and minimalist stories combine through the life of Luisa, a young architect, sometimes dancer, sometimes teacher. What is the relationship between motherhood, roving and desire? Aurora negotiates this question mapped in the intimate archipelago shaped by the lives of engaging women, in the centre of which is Yuliana, a teenager who hides her pregnancy of several months from her mother with Luisa’s complicity.

AZOR
ANDREAS FONTANA (SWITZERLAND)
Country(ies) of production: Switzerland – Argentina – France
Cast: Stéphanie Cléau, Fabrizio RongioneV Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum

Yvan De Wiel, a private banker from Geneva, travels to Argentina in the midst of the dictatorship to replace his partner who has disappeared overnight and about whom very worrying rumours are circulating. In hushed lounges, swimming pools and gardens under surveillance, a remote duel takes place between two bankers who, despite using different methods, are the accomplices of a discreet and merciless form of colonisation.

LA CAJA / THE BOX
LORENZO VIGAS (VENEZUELA)
Country(ies) of production: Mexico – USA
Cast: Hernán Mendoza, Hatzín Navarrete

Hatzin, a young teenager from Mexico City, travels to collect his father’s remains, which have been found in a mass grave amidst the huge skies and empty landscape of Northern Mexico. But a casual encounter with a man who shares a physical resemblance with his father fills him with doubts and hope about his parent’s true whereabouts.

MADALENA
MADIANO MARCHETI (BRAZIL)
Country(ies) of production: Brazil
Cast: Natália Mazarim, Rafael de Bona, Pamella Yule, Chloe Milan, Mariane CáceresFilms in Progress 36

Luziane, Cristiano, and Bianca have almost nothing in common, beside the fact that they all live in the same rural city surrounded by soy fields in western Brazil. While they don’t know one another, each of them is affected by Madalena’s disappearance. In different parts of the town, each in their own way, they react to her absence.

NOCHE DE FUEGO / PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN
TATIANA HUEZO (EL SALVADOR – MEXICO)
Country(ies) of production: Mexico – Germany – Brazil – Qatar
Cast: Ana Cristina Ordóñez González, Marya Membreño, Mayra Batalla

In a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground. Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled and dress up as women when no one is watching. In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. But one day, one of the girls doesn’t make it to her hideout in time.

PIEDRA NOCHE / DUSK STONE
IVÁN FUND (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – Chile – Spain
Cast: Maricel Álvarez, Mara Bestelli, Alfredo Castro, Marcelo Subiotto, Jeremías KuharoWIP Latam 2020

Sina makes her way to the coast to help her friend Greta with the sale of her summer house. Greta lost her only son less than a year ago in that sea and needs her help. As they pack everything up and get ready to hand over the key, Bruno, Greta’s husband, claims to have seen something that confirms the local rumours referring to sightings of a strange creature. WIP Latam Industry Award 2020.

UNA PELÍCULA DE POLICÍAS / A COP MOVIE
ALONSO RUIZPALACIOS (MEXICO)
Country(ies) of production: Mexico
Cast: Mónica del Carmen, Raúl Briones Carmona

An experiment in documentary and narrative storytelling sheds light on one of Mexico and the world’s most controversial institutions, the police force and the causes of the impunity crisis plaguing the justice system.