Paris-based Luxbox, a sales company on a multiple standout Spanish-language debuts bowed at big festivals – from “1976” to “20,000 Species of Bees,” “Clara Sola,” “Song Without a Name” and “The Heiresses” – has swooped on international sales rights to “Simon of the Mountain” (“Simon de la Montaña”), in the run-up to the Cannes Film Festival.
The anticipated first feature of Argentina’s Federico Luis, “Simon of the Mountain” was announced Monday as one of seven movies confirmed for main competition at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.
Co-written by Federico Luis, the film’s editor Tomás Murphy and Agustín Toscano, helmer of Directors’ Fortnight title “The Snatch Thief” who also figures in the film’s key cast, “Simon of the Mountain” stars Lorenzo “Toto” Ferro, one of Argentina’s most rated young actors after his breakout performances as Argentina’s most notorious serial killer in Cannes 2018 Un Certain Regard player “El Angel” and then in “El Marginal” Season 3.
Ferro plays Simon, 21, a lonely only son who falls in with a group of discapacitated kids, thanks to whose friendship he flowers, discovering love, sex and a sense of belonging. That set-up promises for a film which can have large resonance, questioning how accepting the world is not only for the discapacitated but the young at large, forcing them to reinvent the rules for love and entertainment, for example.
A film that “questions identity in a way we have never seen before,” said Luxbox CEO Fiorella Moretti and Head of International Sales Jennyfer Gautier, “ “Simon of the Mountain” is produced by Argentina’s 20/20 Films in co-production with Chile’s Planta Producciones and Uruguay’s Mother Superior.
Patricio Álvarez Casado produces with Fernando Bascuñan, Ignacio Cucucovich and Carlos Rincones.
“We are very happy to be represented by Luxbox, a company who understood from the first screening what we were searching for. Somehow I feel that, like us, they share the idea that this film brings much more than artistic expression to contemporary cinema,” said Ávarez Casado.
“We are extremely happy to represent such an original and unique film,” said Moretti and Gautier. “All the Luxbox team was immediately moved by all the characters and their journey. ‘Simon of the Mountain’ is the discovery of a strong filmmaker! More than ever we are very proud to defend and help Argentinean cinema travel far!”
“Simon of the Mountain” marks the latest title from Federico Luis who boasts a stellar short film career. The 15-minute “La Siesta” world premiered in competition in Cannes, before winning at Toronto and Argentina’s Bafici. Last year’s “Quedate Quieto o Te Amo” and “En el Mismísimo Momento” triumphed at IDFA and Mar del Plata respectively.