Uruguay has announced that the comedy Alelí, the second feature film by director Leticia Jorge Romero (So Much Water), has been selected as the country’s Academy Awards contender in the Best International Feature competition. Starring Néstor Guzzini, Mirella Pascual, Cristina Morán, and Romina Peluffo, the film has played at numerous international film festivals including Miami, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro.
Alelí follows three siblings, whose long-simmering resentments are brought to a full boil after the death of patriarch Alfredo sends his heirs into a downward spiral and the pending sale of their beach house, a repository of childhood memories. Alternating between moments of laugh-out-loud absurdity and stirring beauty, Alelí is a knowing black comedy about a dysfunctional family that seems willing to set everything on fire.
