Paris-based sales company Loco Films has picked up world rights to Sebastian Parra R’s Colombian low-fi sci-fi thriller “Seed of the Desert” (“Semilla del Desierto”), premiering in competition at this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer, seen below.
The feature debuts on Monday, Nov. 18, and features a Q&A with Parra – who also wrote the film’s screenplay, producer Andrés Gómez D, cinematographer David Curto, production designer Belen Toscano y Garcia, executive producer Tatiana Ronderos, unit manager producer Cesar León and sound designer Aleix Cuaresma.
Set on a fictional desert continent, this resourceful thriller follows Caviche and Chelina, a young couple faced with a difficult decision when they discover an unexpected pregnancy. Worried about how her violent father will react to the news, Chelina decides to get an abortion. To finance the procedure, the couple is forced headlong into the world of gasoline smuggling on a journey through a “Mad Max”-like hell.
According to Tallinn programmer Javier Garcia Puerto, “[‘Seed of the Desert’] underlines the tendency of the current Latin American cinema to present contemporary stories, flirting with genres and exposing still prevailing social realities in a fantasy framework, without remaining stuck in classic urban drama.”
Solar Cinema produces with Lisa Maric serving as co-producer. Financing began with a successful crowdfunding campaign before institutional support was provided by Proimágenes Colombia.
Of their pickup, Loco Films’ Laurent Daniélou and Arnaud Godart told Variety, “We were struck by the mesmerizing cinematography of this frantic race through the desert from the first shot. In addition, we were impressed by the subtle dramaturgy reappropriating the codes of the dystopian fable to bring up important social issues such as family rights and ecology.”
“Beyond the genre aspect, this film is, before all, a very strong cinema piece that reminded us of the first ‘Mad Max’ movies; each shot of the film is pure cinema,” they added.
