John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLatido Films, one of Spain’s biggest vendors of Spanish-language arthouse and crossover movies, has swooped on international sales rights to “Unfinished Affairs” (“La Maniobra de la Tortuga”).Domestic distribution in Spain is handled by A Contracorriente Films, one of Spain’s top independent producer-distributors.World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “Unfinished Affairs” marks the second feature from Juan Miguel del Castillo whose debut, 2015’s “Food and Shelter,” proved one of the breakout Spanish debuts of the last decade.A modern-day part of Spain’s great social-issue arthouse film tradition, “Food and Shelter” cast Natalia de Molina (“Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed”) as a single mother threatened with eviction and struggling to put food on the table for her 10-year-old son.
Re-teaming Del Castillo with De Molina, “Unfinished Affairs” is equally grounded in a social reality – Andalusia’s extraordinary Cadiz – but adds a larger crime thriller propulsion to the tale of a police inspector, Manuel Bianquetti, who is forced to relocate to the city.When the body of a young woman is found on the beach, haunted by memories of his own past Bianquetti refuses to close the case, although proof of the guilty killer could be just fruit of his perilously balanced imagination.Only his neighbour, a frail nurse threatened by her brutal ex -partner, lends him any real support in his crusade to bring the killer to justice.“Food and Shelter” won film and actress (De Molina) awards at the 2015 Malaga Festival followed by a Spanish Academy Goya Award for De Molina as lead actress and nominations in the new director and original song categories.“Unfinished.
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