Yahoo Lifestyle Pacifica Grey Snaps Up ‘Beloved Tropic’ Starring Berlinale Silver Bear Winner Paulina Garcia (EXCLUSIVE)
Miami-based FiGa Films has sold “Beloved Tropic” (“Querido Tropico”), the debut fiction feature of Panamanian documentary filmmaker Ana Endara, to Costa Rica-based Pacifica Grey ahead of its market debut at Ventana Sur.
Starring Chile’s Paulina Garcia, who clinched a Berlinale Best Actress Silver Bear for her turn in Sebastian Lelio’s “Gloria,” the drama was pounced on by Spain’s Vitrine prior to its debut at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September.
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Said FiGa founder-CEO Sandro Fiorin: “I’m honored to be collaborating with Ana Endara, who I’ve admired for years. She’s a real talent, with a precise director’s touch. Ana is definitely going places, we’re lucky to have her as part of our family.”
For Pacifica Grey founder Marcelo Quesada, whose company acquired the rights to the drama for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize and the Dominican Republic, “Beloved Tropic” “continues to showcase the rising power of Central American storytelling.”
“We believe it’s essential that these stories are seen within our own region by local audiences,” he asserted.
Garcia plays an upper-class woman with encroaching dementia who is cared for by a pregnant immigrant with problems of her own, played by Jenny Navarrete (“The Other Son”).
Set in Panama City, it follows the poignant bond between the two lonely women. As their lives intertwine, they navigate caregiving challenges and the complexities of mother-daughter dynamics, forging a deep connection that transforms them both.
“Beloved Tropico” began its festival journey when it won the Arthouse Cinema Award at the Cinélatino Toulouse’ pix-in-post section, Cinéma in Construction, the first Panamanian pic to win such an honor.
It then had its world premiere in the Centrepiece section of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), followed by its participation in Horizontes Latinos at San Sebastián, the official competition at the Rome Festival and in the Opera Prima sidebar of the Havana Festival.
Endara is one of the emerging women filmmakers from Panama, which includes Ana Elena Tejera (“Panquiaco”) and Arianne Benedetti whose sophomore feature, “Despíerta Mamá” is Panama’s submission to the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature category.
The lauded feature-length documentaries directed by Endara include “Reinas” and “For Your Peace of Mind, Make Your Own Museum,” the latter co-directed with Pilar Moreno.
Among the leading arthouse cinema distributors in Central America, Pacífica Grey’s catalog includes such modern classics as “Another Round,” “Aftersun,” “Faces Places” as well as acclaimed Central American pics led by “La Llorona,” “Clara Sola,” “Ixcanul,” and “Memories of a Burning Body,” Costa Rica’s entry to next year’s Oscar race.
Ventana Sur takes place in Montevideo, Uruguay over Dec. 2 – 6.
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