The Locarno Film Festival unveiled the lineup for its 68th edition last week featuring an array of Latin American titles, heavy on Brazilian features. This year’s Festival will close with Brazilian filmmaker Sérgio Machado’s Heliopolis, as a part of the Piazza Grande showcase. The Piazza Grande section focuses on films that explore key moments in past and recent history as well as present day dilemmas. Heliopolis is based on a true story about a violinist asked to choose between his career and teaching teens music in Sao Paulo’s biggest favela.
The only Latin American production participating in the main competition, Concorso Internazionale section -which features documentaries, personal-narratives and hybrids of these genres, includes the Mexican-German production Te prometo anarquía (pictured above) by Guatemalan filmmaker Julio Hernández Cordón. The film took home the top prize earlier this spring in the first edition of the Panama International Film Festival’s (IFFP) new section, First Look, which aims to promote Central American films. Te prometo anarquía is a love story that follows Miguel and Johnny, who sell their own blood to make a living.
In the Concorso Cineasti Del Presente section showcases films that have ensemble casts, film essays or politically driven works relative to today. The lineup features three Latin American world premieres; the Argentine-South Korean production El movimiento by Benjamín Naishtat, the follow up to his debut History of Fear; Brazilian-Portuguese-French production Olmo & The Seagull (pictured right) co-directed by Petra Costa (Elena); and the Colombian-German production Siembra, the debut feature film by Ángela Osorio Rojas and Santiago Lozano.
Brazilian filmmaker Júlio Bressane will also present the world premiere of his latest feature Kid / Garoto alongside a section entitled "Tela Brilhadora," curated by Bressane himself. The other titles, which are also all both Brazilian-productions and world premieres, are The Mirror / O espelho by Rodrigo Lima; The Mayor / O Prefeito by Bruno Safadi; and Origin of the World / Origem do Mundo by Moa Batsow.
Additionally, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl by Mexican-American filmmaker Alfonso Gómez-Rejón will also be screened in the festival as part of the Piazza Grande showcase.
The 68th Locarno Film Festival will take place in Locarno, Switzerland on August 5-15, 2015.
