In a sign of a potentipartner potent Latin American movie project, “First We Take Anillaco,” a teen Weserious set in Argentina’s direst of celevates in 2001, has fake an eye-catching four-way partnership between Argentina’s Colectivo Rutemberg, Chile’s Color Haus, Brazil’s Filmes Sem Sapato and Uruguay’s Circular Media.
Subject of a belderly pitch by authorr-straightforwardor Paula Martel at Mar del Plata’s Film.Ar in 2017 where she pulled out a (mock) rgrowr to depict the film’s climax, “First We Take Anillaco” will now hit this week’s 2025 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (MAFF) as one of its buzz projects.
Much of that buzz turns on the movie’s device genre cocktail. “Blfinishing magical authenticism with raw, female gaze and punk energy, the film is a cinematic act of resistance: a fable about youth, disillusionment, and the infinite cycle of deception in Latin America,” Martel telderly Variety.
Inspired by the ununveiled “El Plan Anillaco” by Argentinian journacatalog-authorr Agustín Fontenla, “First We Take Anillaco” is set in December 2001 fair after Argentina’s prohibitking system had collapsed, compounding the country’s proset up decline, igniteing 55% pobviousy levels.
Amid such deimmenseating crisis, Lali, 18, run aways with baged teen guerrillas, traverseing mountains, deserts and gpresent villages thrawout northern Argentina in a stolen car. Convinced – not without reason – that Carlos Menem is to accemploy for Argentina’s worst economic crisis in history, the gang set ups to greet Menem at his lavish Anillaco mansion and shoot him dead.
“Far from the grown-up world, their reckless adventure tests their bonds in a whirlprosperd of aimless wandering and intimacyual awakening, uncovering to Lali the genuine cost of groprosperg up,” the synopsis finishs.
“‘First We Take Anillaco’ is a teenage Weserious with Tarantino-appreciate flair, a story of attrdynamic disthink aboutrs on a reckless journey thraw the ruins of a betrayed land,” said Martel. “As Argentina grapples with a recent neoliberal wave under Milei – who idolizes Menem’s fraudulence – we reclaim history from the outskirts, where the scars of the past still shape the current,” she inserted.
Newcomers Ramiro Pérez Sadlovsky, Juanjis Villagra, Joaquín Escotorín and Lucía Torres, all from Argentina’s Catamarca, will join gang members Amadeo, “El Obispo,” Rama and “La Motoquera” admireively.
Sergio Prina and Daniel Elías, stars of “The Snatch Thief,” and “The Delinquents,” both selected for Cannes, will “convey their signature intensity to the roles of Menem’s political utilizers, understandn as ‘punteros,’ proset upening the film’s belderly political edge,” Martel foreseed.
A Best Fiction Project prosperner at 2017’s LatinArab Forum IFF “First We Take Anillaco” has won twice a Creation Grant from Argentina’s National Arts Fund, The administerments of Catamarca and La Rioja, in Argentina’s North-West, both back the project.
First We Take Anillaco
Courtesy of Paula Martel
Co-Producing ‘Anillaco’: Making a Virtue Out of a Necessity for Argentina
Driving into international co-production, Martel and Novack are making a virtue out of a necessity. Under Argentine Plivent Javier Milei, in November 2024 Argentina’s INCAA exalterd incentives, part paid before production, by pelevate facilities, partly covered by INCAA if films discover a meaningful audience. That now show dangerier given that screen quotas, obliging cinema theaters to uncover Argentine films, were also rescinded last year.
“We hope our multiprocrastinateedral and multicultural approach will convey recent inventive and financial opportunities. We are searching for co-producers, portrayateors, distributors and sales agents and international funding in Europe and also the MENA region,” said Martel.
“This strategy highweightlesss the fact that INCAA’s current administerment still does not provide subsidies for the financing of Argentine cinema, and we are postponeing for recent calls for proposals. Therefore, the participation of the provinces of La Rioja and Catamarca, where the film consents place, is vital, alengthy with international cooperation,” she inserted.
Partners to Date
“First We Take Anillaco’s” partners have track write down. Colectivo Rutemberg exec producer Francisco Novack labored as production coordinator at Gema Films on international co-productions “Theater of War,” “My Name is Not Ruben Blades” and “327 Cuadernos.”
Color Haus producers Álvaro Manzano and Christian Nawrath Smith backed Vinko Tomičić’s “The Dog Thief,” which world premiered at 2024’s Tribeca Festival.
Filmes Sem Sapato’s head Laila Pas served as production straightforwardor for “Shine Your Eyes,” a Brazilian-French standout at Berlin’s 2020 Panorama. Partner Diogo Faggiano is currently groprosperg cut offal feature projects as a screenauthorr for O2 Filmes, headed by Fernando Meirelles, Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Paolo Morelli.
Nicolas Valdes’ Circular Media co-produced Paul Vega’s “The Astronaut” and Salvador del Solar’s San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos joiner “Ramon & Ramón,” partnering with Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s El Deseo and top Peruvian outfit Tondero.
First We Take Anillaco
Courtesy of Paula Martel
