Critics’ Week, the independent parallel section of the Venice Film Festival, has announced the lineup for its 2019 edition, which will feature the world premiere of the Chilean film The Prince / El príncipe, the debut feature by Sebastián Muñoz in competition, and the Mexican production Sanctorum by Joshua Gil as closing film, out of competition.
Starring Alfredo Castro (Rojo, No), and Argentina’s Gastón Pauls (Nine Queens), The Prince is a coming-of-age gay prison drama based on the eponymous novel by Mario Cruz and adapted to the screen by playwright-theatre director-actor Luis Barrales. Set in San Bernardo, Chile in 1970, The Prince tells the story of Jaime, a lonely and narcissistic 20 year-old, who one drunken night, stabs his best friend in what seems to have been a fit of passion. Sentenced to prison, he will meet “The Stallion”, an older and respected man in whom Jaime will find protection, revealing a deep need for tenderness and recognition. Behind bars, Jaime will become “The Prince”, learning about love and loyalty with The Stallion in a close relationship of “black love,” as it’s called in jail, all the while facing the violent power struggle inside the prison.
Gil’s second film after his 2015 debut feature La Maldad, is set in a small town plagued by the war between the army and the drug traffickers, a child has lost his mother. His grandmother has told him that the only way of getting her back is to invoke the forces of nature. The boy heads off into a forest to plead for his mother, as the town prepares for a final battle with the army.
The 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival will take place August 28 - September 7.
