Venice Horizons-Bound ‘El Gran Movimiento’ Acquired by Best Friend Forever (EXCLUSIVE)

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s “El Gran Movimiento” which will world premiere at Venice in the Horizons section.

“El Gran Movimiento” marks Russo’s follow up to his 2016 feature debut “Dark Skull” which won a prize at Locarno and played at San Sebastian, among other festivals. “Dark Skull” went on to represent Bolivia in the Oscar race.

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Set in contemporary Bolivia, the movie follows Elder and his companions who arrive in La Paz after a seven-day walk and seeks to be reinstated in his work at the mine. Once in the city, Elder gets a job but his health starts to deteriorate. An elderly woman known as Mama Pancha connects him to Max, a witch doctor, hermit, and clown, who will try to bring the young man back to life.

The movie is produced by Russo and Pablo Paniagua at Socavón and Alexa Rivero at Altamar Films (“The Unknown Saint”), in association with Dan Wechsler at Bord Cadre films (“Petrov’s Flu,” “Memoria”), Andreas Roald at Sovereign Films (“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”), Jamal Zeinal-Zade (“Annette”) and Miguel Angel Peñaloza.

The cast features Julio César Ticona, Max Bautista Uchasara, Francisca Arce de Aro, Israel Hurtado and Gustavo Milán.

“The film is a gripping immersion into La Paz and the life of its invisibles, into a world that we never see,” said Martin Gondre and Charles Bin, Best Friend Forever co-founders. “Anchored both in reality and fantasy, the film is striking in the way it creates a new cinematic language while being suspenseful,” said the executives.

Best Friend Forever’s current slate includes Cannes’s Midnight title “Bloody Oranges” by Jean-Christophe Meurisse, “Medusa” by Anita Rocha da Silveira which played in Directors’ Fortnight, and “I Comete – A Corsican Summer” by Pascal Tagnati, which won the Special Jury Award in Rotterdam and played in the Cannes ACID sidebar. The company was launched at Cannes 2019 and is a sister company of Paris based Indie Sales.

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