Chilean director Sebastián Silva (winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for The Maid) will be busy this summer as his three most recent film productions will be released in the United States.
First at the bat is Silva's Crystal Fairy (pictured), a bizarre, mescaline-driven deadpan road trip comedy through Chile. The film stars Michael Cera as Jamie, a boorish, insensitive American traveling in the South American country, and Gaby Hoffman, in the title role as an eccentric, radical, free spirit who believes the journey is more important than the end result, and while she embraces everyone, she gets close to no one.
Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance, Crystal Fairy, produced by Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín (No), opens in theaters and on demand on July 12, released by IFC Films.
Also starring Cera, Silva's Magic Magic (pictured right) is a psychological thriller about Alicia (played by Juno Temple), an American visiting her cousin Sarah in the Chilean countryside. When Sarah suddenly has to depart, Alicia is left with her cousin's friends, consequently spiraling into insomnia and paranoia. The film also stars Emily Browning, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Agustín Silva.
Magic Magic, which premiered at Sundance and was and official selection at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, is going straight to DVD on August 6 released by Sony Pictures.
And lastly, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City will give a one week run to Silva's and Pedro Peirano's Old Cats / Gatos viejos (pictured left) August 20-26.
The film tells the story of Isadora (Bélgica Castro), an octogenarian living comfortably with her husband and two cats, suddenly finds herself fighting a battle on two fronts when the onset of dementia arrives at the same time that her daughter's attempt to scheme the landlord seems to require that Isadora sign over the lease on her Santiago apartment.
Unfolding with black humor and empathy in equal measure, the film emphasizes both the confusion in Isadora's psyche and the claustrophobia of her domestic landscape. A hit at the Cannes and New York film festivals in 2010, this is the film's long-awaited theatrical run in the U.S.
