‘Small Town,’ the Awaited Comeback of Animation Legend Walter Tournier, Swooped on by Latido for International (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent One of the most active of sales agents at this week’s Ventana Sur, Madrid-based Latido Films has closed international rights on adventure-comedy “Small Town” (“Pueblo Chico”) a parable of greed and instance of the building scale and ambition of Latin American animation co-production whether regional or reaching out to Spain.

The subject of a Ventana Sur panel on Wednesday, “Small Town,” long in the works, marks the comeback of Uruguay’s Walter Tournier (“Selkirk”), one of the most veteran of Latin American animation directors whose career stretches back to 1972’s cut-out animated short “In the Forest There Is Much to Do” and takes in Uruguay’s first animated feature, “Selkirk.” In “Small Town,” a winner at Ventana Sur’s 2017’s Animation!

which segued to a 2018 Animation! Focus at Annecy’s Mifa’s market, Tournier co-directs with another acknowledged Latin American master of stop-motion animation, Brazil’s Quirino winner Cesar Cabral (“Angeli the Killer,” “Bob Spit – We Do Not Like People”).

Described by Latido Films head Antonio Saura as a “charming all family story,” “Small Town” turns on how the children of a little town manage to save the day after people discover they can create energy from cow farts, prompting an economic boom at the expenses of human and humane relations, and the attempt of an evil speculator to try to rob village folk of their well earned livelihood. “Small Town” poses two questions, Tournier has suggested in a WIP video: “It explores the relations between humans, encouraging us to reflect on their nature and direction.