Pedro Almodóvar’sEl Deseois teaming up once again with Peru’s most prominent producer, Tondero, to co-produce Peruvian filmmaker Salvador del Solar’s second pic after his lauded feature debut, “Magallanes.”
Titled “Un lugar para Ramon” (“A Place for Ramon”), the drama is set against the backdrop of Peru’s months-long COVID-19 lockdown where two men, a Peruvian national who is confined to his apartment with the ashes of his estranged father, meets a Spaniard who is unable to leave the country because Lima’s airport has been shut down.
Thrown together by the unusual circumstances, their friendship evolves into deeper and more ambiguous terrain.
“I would liken it to two beings stuck on an island together where they are isolated and detached from the rest of the world,” said Del Solar who wrote the script with Hector Galvez, best known for directing and/or writing “NN” and “Paraiso.”
The project received an important impetus as one of six projects recently awarded grants by the Ministry of Culture’s audiovisual directorate, DAFO. It was selected out of approximately 70 entries.
In their pronouncement on why they chose “Un lugar para Ramon,” the jury described it as a “sophisticated, profound, and contemporary exploration of the friendship between two men that challenges heteronormativity through a masterful handling of erotic play and seduction.”
They praised the script’s “maturity, well-developed characters and skilful progression of scenes and dramatic arcs,” which enabled “a deep dive into a relationship that goes beyond mere sexual connection, instead presenting itself as an urgent existential need among individuals.”
El Deseo’s participation also amped up the drama’s international appeal and potential success, it pointed out.
“After boarding ‘Magallanes’ and sharing in its journey through various festivals and collecting awards along the way, it’s an honor to co-produce Salvador’s next film and an even greater honor to collaborate again with El Deseo,” said Tondero CEO, Miguel Valladares, who’s in Madrid for Iberseries & Platino Industria along with Del Solar.
Last August, Tondero announced that it had joined forces with El Deseo and Infinity Hill (“Argentina, 1985”) to co-produce a still untitled drama based on the hostage crisis that took place at the Japanese embassy in Lima in 1996. El Deseo executive producer Esther Garcia and Infinity Hill co-founder/chief creative officer Axel Kuschevatzky were in Lima to attend Tondero’s 15thanniversary festivities.
Per Valladares, the budget for “Un lugar para Ramon” is virtually covered, with the DAFO fund and other Peruvian backers covering roughly 40%, Tondero Colombia covering 30% as it taps Colombian incentives, and the other 30% through El Deseo which is in talks with a platform that would cover Spanish and Latin American territories, or barring that, could apply for Spanish incentives.
El Deseo has backed a number of Latin American pics, including such acclaimed titles as “Wild Tales,” “The Clan,” “Zama” and “El Angel.”
“We want to contribute to making ‘A Place for Ramon’ the next project by Salvador del Solar. We loved his first film, ‘Magallanes,’ and we are confident that he will tell this story about the friendship between two men with sensitivity and courage,” said Garcia.
