The Venice Film Festival announced this morning the complete lineup for its 80th anniversary edition, which includes two films by Latin American directors in the official competition for the Golden Lion: The Count / El Conde by Pablo Larraín from Chile and Memory by Michel Franco from Mexico.
Starring Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro and Paula Luchsinger, The Count is a dark comedy/horror that imagines a parallel universe inspired by the recent history of Chile. The film portrays Augusto Pinochet, a symbol of world fascism, as a vampire who lives hidden in a ruined mansion in the cold southern tip of the continent. Feeding his appetite for evil to sustain his existence.
After two hundred and fifty years of life, Pinochet has decided to stop drinking blood and abandon the privilege of eternal life. He can no longer bear that the world remembers him as a thief. Despite the disappointing and opportunistic nature of his family, he finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion through an unexpected relationship.
Starring Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard and shot in New York City, Memory is a dramatic study of memory, identity, and trust, that tells the story of a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.
Other Latin American titles announced by the Venice Film Festival include A cielo abierto, the debut feature film by Mariana Arriaga and Santiago Arriaga, who are Mexican director-screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga’s daughter and son; and the Brazilian film Heartless by Nara Normande and Tião. Both films will be having their world premiere in the Horizons competition of the festival.
The Argentine film The Rescue / El rapto by Daniela Goggi will screen in the Horizons Extra section of the Italian film festival, as well as Pet Shop Boys by Olmo Schnabel, a Mexican co-production with Italy and the U.K. And as it was previously announced, Society of the Snow by Spanish director J.A. Bayona, and a co-production with Uruguay and Chile will be the closing night film of the festival.
The 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival will take place August 30-September 9, 2023.
