Principal photography has wrapped in Spain’s La Rioja region on Isabel Coixet’s romantic drama “Un Amor,” a tale of obsessive passion that forces the film’s protagonist to reconsider the woman she thought she was. The 2023 Goya actress winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) stars opposite Hovik Keuchkerian (“Money Heist”); Film Constellation handles world sales.A sales promo will be unveiled for buyers in Cannes.
based on the best-selling novel by Sara Mesa, selected by influential Spanish newspaper “El PaÍs” as Spain’s 2020 Book of the Year and translated into 13 languages internationally, “Un Amor” turns on Nat (Costa), 30, a translator who escapes the big city to start anew in the countryside.
Taking refuge in La Escapa, a hamlet, isolated by the hostility of her landlord and villagers’ distrust, she surprises herself by accepting an unsettling sexual proposal from neighbor Andreas. “From this strange and conflicting encounter sparks a devouring and obsessive passion that will consume Nat fully, forcing her to question the woman she thought she was,” the synopsis says.
“Un Amor”is a moving account of existential doubt and the transformative power of carnal desire, exploring the subversive nature of gender roles, according to Film Constellation.
“The moment I read ‘Un Amor,’ I felt an overwhelming need to put the story on film,” Coixet has said. She added: “It dares us to rethink our perception of love and all its synonyms: Passion, despair, unease, fear and redemption, and drove me to ask myself: Is seduction an innocent weapon? When does this weapon turn on the one who wields it? Nat’s journey is intimate, raw and provocative…and there’s nothing I like more than a challenge!”
Costa (“only You,” “Piercing,” “Victoria) stars with Keuchkerian who won critical praise and a Forqué Award for his performance in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “Riot Police.”
Written by Spanish novelist and short-story writer Laura Ferrero (“What Are You Going To Do With the Rest of Your Life,” Empty Pools”) and Coixet, “Un Amor” is produced by Buenapinta Media’s Marisa Fernández Armenteros and Perdición Films’ Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza.
Behind Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent” and “Lullaby,” which won 2023 Goya Awards this February for best first film, best actress (“Costa) and best supporting actress (Susi Sanchez), Fernández Armenteros is one of five Spanish producers who will be featured at a Marché du Film Producers Breakfast Spotlight on Spain, part of Cannes’ Country of Honor focus.
Hermida and Atienza are producing J.A. Bayona’s release “The Society of the Snow,” one of Netflix’s biggest upcoming Spanish-language releases. They produced Bayona’s “The Impossible,” starring Naomi Watts and Tom Holland, and Sergio G. Sánchez’s “Marrowbone,” with Anya Taylor-Joy and George MacKay.
