Celebrated Argentine filmmaker Victoria Galardi returns to the San Sebastian Film Festival with her latest film in development, “The Hedgehogs “(“Los Erizos”), which participates in the prominent Spanish film event’s co-production forum.
Her dramedy “Cerro Bayo” competed in San Sebastian in 2010 where it won the TVE-Otra Mirada Award. In 2008, “Lovely Loneliness,” which Galardi co-directed with Martin Carranza, vied for the hefty cash prize in the festival’s Zabaltegi New Directors section and brought home a Youth Jury Award. Her 2013 pic “I Thought it was a Party” was nominated by the Argentine Academy for best editing, best cinematography and best production design.
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Co-penned by Galardi and Fabian Casas, “The Hedgehogs” revolves around a couple who, after ten years of marriage, decide to separate. To break the news to their young son, they plan one last family trip to the sea. They arrive at an off-season coastal town, greeted by the caretaker, his dog Rita, and a couple that evokes a lost youthful connection.
As they enjoy beach games, meals and quiet arguments, the weight of their impending conversation with their son hangs over them. When Rita goes missing and a storm approaches, their search for her becomes symbolic of their fear—not just for the dog, but for the end of their love, the synopsis runs.
The cast is led by Esteban Bigliardi, Pilar Gamboa and Laura Paredes.
“It seems interesting to me to pose the contradiction of taking a family trip to a place where they were happy to end the separation,as if the memories of a life together were necessary to declare its end,” said Galardi, adding: “And to also showthe difficulty the couple faces in making and executing that decision: how painful it is to separate, how long it takes tounravel the bond that joins two people for years.”
Drama is produced by Argentina’s Tarea Fina, founded in 2009 by Juan Pablo Miller to make both fiction and documentary films. Its credits include “Las Acacias,” “La luz incidente,” “Los Sonámbulos,” “Ciencias Naturales,”“Alemania” and “El llanto,” among others. “Las Acacias” won Cannes Camera d’Or for best first feature in 2011.
Uruguay’s Cinekdoque, founded by lauded filmmaker Federico Veiroj (“La vida util,” “Acne”) co-produces. Miller, Veiroj and Marcela Avalos serve as producers in the family drama that is slated to shoot in March and April of next year.
The 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival runs Sept. 20 – 28.
