Miami-based sales and distribution company FiGa Films has snagged world sales rights to Bolivian filmmaker Martin Boulocq’s fourth pic, “The Visitor.”
Described as a “somber meditation on family relations, class, and the increasing power of evangelism in Latin America,” “The Visitor” world premieres in June at the 2022 Tribeca Festival where it competes in the festival’s international narrative section.
One of the prominent talents in Bolivia’s burgeoning filmmaking industry, Martín Boulocq is best known for his feature debut “The Most Beautiful and My Best Years,” hailed by Bolivian critics as one of the twelve most notable films in Bolivian film history.
Set in the city of Cochabamba in central Bolivia, “The Visitor” follows Humberto (newcomer Enrique Aráoz), an ex-convict who earns a decent living by singing at wakes. He’s anxious to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter but his in-laws, powerful Evangelical pastors, refuse to give up custody of their sole granddaughter. He is forced to face his own demons as he struggles against a powerful institution to which he once belonged.
The trailer, bowing exclusively in Variety, opens at a wake where Humberto’s plaintive baritone plays against a series of images that hint at the family drama that unfolds.
In his director’s statement, Boulocq explained: “A common thread through my previous films is an exploration of filial and parental relationships through characters that face adverse situations such as abandonment, forced exile or family exclusion. This has been an endeavor built from my long-standing interests in understanding how social conditions affect emotional bonds.”
New deal marks the third time that FiGa Films takes on the sales rights to a Boulocq film, after “The Parents” (“Los Viejos”) in 2011 and “Eugenia” in 2017.
“Such a pleasure to be collaborating with Martín and Andrea [Camponovo] for the third time. We are floored by their new film and can’t wait to share it at Tribeca; Bolivian cinema is finally getting the recognition it deserves,” said Sandro Fiorin, CEO of FiGa Films, who negotiated the deal with Camponovo.
The drama is produced by Camponovo, Álvaro Olmos, Argentina’s Hernán Musaluppi, Santiago López, and Diego Robino and lensed by cinematographer Germán Nocella (“The Sharks”).
Tribeca runs June 8-19.
The Visitor
Courtesy of FiGa Films
