MAR DEL PLATA – Having produced Ines Barrionuevo’s “Atlantida,” which world premiered in the Berlinale’s 2014 Generation Plus, Paola Suarez’s Germina Films is backing another feature debut from a Cordoba-based distaff director: “Azul el mar” (Ocean Blue,) helmed by Sabrina Moreno, and introduced at Mar del Plata Festival.
“Azul” is set up as a co-production between Germina and Moreno’s label, Sabrina Jaune Producciones, also based out of Cordoba.
Like “Atlantida” before it, “Ocean Blue” is one of the six winners of an annual Raymundo Gleyzer Prize. Part of INCAA’s drive into regional film financing in Argentina, one of the passions of INCAA president Lucrecia Cardoso, the Raymundo Gleyzner prizes are allotted by Argentina’s INCAA state film-TV agency to six regions in Argentina. They were announced this week at Mar del Plata.
“The prize gives some development money. Even more important, however, it allows Sabrina Moreno to apply for INCAA production funding. ‘Ocean Blue’ is a highly interesting, high quality project, but that normally wouldn’t be possible for a first-time director,” Suarez said at Mar del Plata Fest this week.
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Winning for the Central-North Argentina region, which takes in Cordoba, along with Agustina Comedi’s “El angel gris,” produced by Matias Herrera.
A dramedic ‘90s-set family road movie based on Moreno’s own memories of infancy, “Ocean Blue” tracks a family road-trip for from Cordoba to Mar del Plata to indulge in one of Argentina’s traditional family rituals: a holiday down on the coast. But the parent’s marriage is on the rocks. As the family ticks off the rites of a summer vacation – the beach, a good restaurant, a visit to the Marine World – Lola and Ricardo have to decide whether to break up or make up.
“These are different family holidays. The film asks to what extent parents should stay married for the sake of their children, how long can love go on compared to love for one’s children.”
She added: A screenplay consultant told me “Ocean Blue” had echoes of Eric Rohmer’s – “Pauline on the Beach” – which is a bit the idea, the trip, the Summer, beaches, crowds, how people move through these spaces.
Moreno developed the screenplay at Spain’s Mega Plus. Project was also selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2008.
“The screenplay is really, really solid,” said Suarez. But, “though apparently simple in production terms, the film has some large scenes requiring a budget which is not so low for Argentina,” which makes international fund financing and co-production attractive possibilities.
