Double San Sebastian Winner Isaki Lacuesta Boards Víctor Iriarte’s ‘Rewriting’ (EXCLUSIVE)
A double San Sebastian Golden Shell winner with “The Double Steps” (2011) and “Between Two Waters” (2018), Isaki Lacuesta is teaming with Tamara Iglesias’ Atekaleun and Víctor Iriarte’s Cajaconcosasdentro to co-produce “Reescritura” (“Rewriting”), Iriarte’s fiction feature debut. Lacuesta will co-produce out of his label La Termita Films.
Catalan auteur Lacuesta has produced to date only one feature that he didn’t direct: Jordi Morató’s documentary “The Creator of the Jungle,” made in 2013.
San Sebastian’s Vitrine Films, formerly based in Brazil, is attached to the project for Spanish distribution.
According to Iriarte, “Reescritura” is “a noir portraying three main characters searching for their place in the world. A feature with three murders, two robberies and a getaway.”
“Víctor is a very singular filmmaker. One of the few with a voice of his own,” Lacuesta told Variety “It’s very difficult to share this assertion, because all his short pieces are extremely difficult to see [due to distribution]. And if there’s something clear is that his works have charm. They’re really difficult in a critical, essay-esque work.”
“Reescritura” follows Vera, a woman in her fifties who works in Madrid’s courts as a stenographer. Her seemingly methodical life hides a secret: She’s out for revenge. Vera knows the city’s underworld perfectly and is putting together a robbery, while also trying to reunite with a son she does not know.
“The project’s starting point is its genre: a noir. But it’s reimagined something that mainly Chinese filmmakers such as Diao Yinan, Jia Zhangke, Bi Gan, or Jing Wang are doing brilliantly,” Iriarte told Variety.
He added: “We’re very interested in criss-crossing a strong plot and characters –a classical cinema main trait– with a very visually rich approach.”
A multi-hyphenate curator-creator Victor Iriarte has served as cinema programmer at San Sebastian’s Tabakalera’s Centro Internacional de Cultura Contemporánea, has been a member of the festival selection committee and a board member at Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola. He’s also a performance artist and a novelist. And a ping-pong champion. As a filmmaker, he began as Lacuesta’s assistant director on “Cravan vs Cravan” (2011), directed 62-minute experimental documentary “Invisible” and several short pieces and also served as cinematographer on Filipino filmmaker Raya Martin’s “Buenas noches España.”
Aranzazu Calleja and Maite Arroitajauregi are composing “Rewriting’s” soundtrack.
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