Martfilms has partnered on “Looking for Sam,” a documentary-fiction hybrid directed by Mariana Rondón and co-written with producer Marite Ugás. The project reunites two actors from Rondón’s 2013 San Sebastian Golden Shell-winning drama “Bad Hair”—Sam Lange, who played the lead child character Junior, and Samantha Castillo, who portrayed his mother. Both performers departed Venezuela and have since relocated to other countries.
The film explores themes of displacement and transformation, examining the borders individuals cross—geographic, temporal, physical, and identity-based. According to Rondón, the narrative “wanders between fiction and documentary, where memory and identity blur and transform one another.” Lange currently resides in Paris working as a fashion model, while Castillo emigrated to Mexico. Ugás noted that the production investigates the distance between one’s former self and present identity.
Martha Orozco of Martfilms described the collaboration as a long-anticipated creative partnership, citing “Bad Hair” as a significant work that addressed racism, homophobia, and polarization within Latin American cinema. She emphasized that the new project represents a nostalgic reunion, with the country changed, the protagonists matured, and the filmmakers’ craft evolved.
Sudaca Films, the production company founded by Rondón and Ugás, recently turned 30 and has produced works including the 2021 Tribeca selection “Contactado” and “Zafari,” which won the French Film Critics Award in 2024. The company has been invited to a six-month residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris starting in December, allowing continued screenplay development and collaboration with Lange. The project is slated for presentation at San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, held in conjunction with the festival running Sept. 18-26.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI