The Berlin’s M-Appeal company announced that it will co-produce the second film of the young Cuban filmmaker Carlos Machado Quintela, “Benjamin or the planetarium,” adding that filming should begin in March 2014.
M-Appeal join hands with Argentina’s Rizoma Films, directed by Hernan Pablo Musaluppi and Chernov. The Germans have the rights on worldwide sales outside Cuba and Argentina.
The Quintela’s script won last Tuesday the World Film Fund Award worth 35 000 Euros to be used to make this film. According to Musalappi, they have already available 70 percent of the funding.
“Benjamin” plot located in the Nuclear City, in Cienfuegos, where they began to build the first nuclear power plant in Latin America, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union it was left unfinished, forcing the inhabitants of this city, mostly scientists to find other ways to make a living, including pig breeding
In this context the story unfolds, revolving around three characters: a young disappointed to have been dropped out of work: an old man only wants to live without complications and a father that only wants to learn to ride bikes.
That M-Appeal produce this new foray by Quintela came as no surprise, because it had previously purchased the rights to his debut film “The Pool” which was released in February in the Panorama festival in Berlin.
“The Pool” has participated in over 20 festivals worldwide, earning awards in Miami, in the 33 edition of the New Latin American Film Festival, the French Critics’ Award in the Toulouse Latin American Film Festival, among others
The CEO of M-Appeal, Maren Kroymann, stated, “We chose Carlos’ project because we believe strongly in his unique way of writing, in which there appears a new form of filmmaking in Cuba, far from the clichés and folklore”
