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Hospitals can be scary places. Nobody is there for fun times; everyone is scared, unhappy, sick or in pain. Or some combination. We depend on the hospital staff to keep us together. We rely on the doctors, of course, to diagnose and treat, but we rely especially on the nursing staff, who spend all of their time with patients. The people who work diligently to make sure we are comfortable and cared for until we can go home. They administer our medications, track our bowel movements, clean up our messes, and are there until the bitter end. These people work tirelessly and often go underappreciated, but their role is no less important. Our lives are in their hands, after all.

Martin Kraut’s La Dosis looks at a pair of these caretakers and the extremes to which they will go in service of their work. What happens when a nurse...

The line between mercy killing and plain old murder is uncomfortably drawn in Argentine “La Dosis.” Writer-director Martin Kraut’s debut feature sets up an intriguing cat-and-mouse conflict between one male hospital nurse whose early-terminus interventions are of the compassionate kind, while a new staffer’s seem motivated by pure malice.

Not quite as suspenseful or twisty as that premise might lead one to expect, this ends up falling somewhere between thriller and character-study terrain. Nonetheless, it occupies that not-entirely-satisfying middle ground capably enough to keep viewers interested, and to suggest its maker has the chops for less-modestly-scaled future projects. Following a run on the genre festival circuit, Goldwyn is releasing directly to U.S. VOD and digital platforms on June 11.

Outwardly, Marcos (Carlos Portaluppi) is something of a sad sack: A portly middle-aged loner without apparent friends or family, working a singularly grim night-shift job. He can’t even escape via sleep,...

Despite being a film about euthanatizing ICU nurses at a provincial hospital in Argentina, Martín Kraut’s directorial debut La Dosis actually begins with a miraculous attempt to revive a patient after doctors declared her dead. That’s the kind of man Marcos (Carlos Portaluppi) is, though: on the job for two decades and counting, he knows when someone is beyond help and when their time has yet to arrive. He therefore grabs the paddles, shocks her two more times while everyone else looks on with confusion, and is rewarded by the beeping of her heartbeat. Was it worth it? Maybe. The doctors say it bought her another week as they decide to stop her treatment anyway. That means another week of pain.

Had Marcos let her die, we wouldn’t understand his motives when he decides to kill her himself a couple days later. We need to know that...

"Someone might accuse you. Or maybe they alread yhave." Samuel Goldwyn Films has released an official trailer for an Argentinian thriller titled La Dosis, which just translates to The Dose in English. This first premiered at last year's Rotterdam Film Festival, and it also played at the BFI Flare, Bucheon, Heartland, and Fantasia Film Festivals last year. The title is a reference to the lethal "dose" that one nurse provides to various patients in need. Marcos is a nurse on the night shift at a clinic. Applied and professional, but with a secret: in some extreme cases, he applies euthanasia. Gabriel, a new night nurse at the clinic, soon unravels Marcos' secret with the confrontation leading to more trouble. Starring Carlos Portaluppi as Marcos, and Ignacio Rogers as Gabriel, plus Lorena Vega. Looks like an intriguing medical thriller from Argentina. Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Martín Kraut's La Dosis,...

Oration Films to continue international sales at virtual EFM.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights from Oration Films to Martín Kraut’s Argentinian psychological thriller La Dosis.

Oration Films will continue international sales at the virtual EFM next week on the drama about two nurses in a private clinic who clash over their illicit behaviour.

Carlos Portaluppi (Lo Habrás Imaginado), Ignacio Rogers (Esteros), and Lorena Vega (El Bosque De Los Perros) star.

Samuel Goldwyn plans a June release on the feature directorial debut by Kraut, who wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Pablo Chernov of Alina Films.

“In...

Marcos (Carlos Portaluppi) is a hardworking, long serving nurse on a palliative care ward, eking out his life supporting people who have little hope of recovering theirs. He's patient and diligent about his work and follows his own code of ethics. Every now and again, when he considers a patient to be beyond hope, he discreetly administers an overdose to speed them on their way. It's a simple life until, one day, newcomer Gabriel (Ignacio Rogers) takes a job on the ward and throws everything into chaos.

Gabriel is practically the polar opposite of Marcos. Young, slim, brimming over with confidence, he soon establishes himself as a favourite and may even pip Marcos to promotion. But something feels wrong. This is supposedly his first nursing job, so why does he seem so familiar with all the tasks involved? Why does he keep volunteering to do extra work? Before long, Marcos discovers.

Ventana Sur’s Blood Window stands out as one of Latin America’s most important events for the promotion and advancement of genre filmmaking.

According to Blood Window coordinator Javier Fernández, genre filmmaking has become a Helms Deep-type bastion for independent filmmakers looking to create cinema on their own terms and with limited budgets.

“Genre is, in Latin America, where independent filmmaking is still happening,” said Fernandez. “Many independent filmmakers are turning to the fantastic to find a place in the market. Overall production for genre films has stayed steady, but more independent directors are turning to genre to save that independent nature of production.”

More than that though, it has provided a launchpad for a number of filmmakers looking to work internationally. Latin American genre provided the roots of filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro (“Cronos”), “Don’t Breath” director Fede Alvarez and “It” director Andy Muschietti, recently linked to...

Blood Window, Argentina’s rapidly growing Latin American genre film market, part of Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur meet-mart, will hold a showcase at Cannes Festival’s Cannes Film Market from March 11 – 14.

Seven works in progress, currently in post-production, will be presented as part of Upcoming Fantastic Films, where ten-minute clips will accompany the presentations. Three finished films will also screen, aimed at representing the best of recent genre Latin American genre filmmaking, with two more participating in the Market Screenings.

Although Blood Window’s beginnings are steeped in blood and gore, the current body of films representing the market goes far beyond the traditional slasher flicks Latin America has nearly perfected, with films of fantasy, science fiction and a slew of different thrillers now participating – an indication of the festival’s maturation and growth.

The three features which will screen at Cannes come from Uruguay and Argentina, Mexico, the latter...

Over the last handful of years, Lgbt filmmakers telling specifically Lgbt stories have increased exponentially. Along with film festivals like La’s Outfest and Toronto’s Inside Out Lgbt Film Festival, the Lgbt experience is being given new voice not only here in the states or North America specifically, but throughout the world as a whole.

An example of this? From Argentina comes the debut film from director Papu Curotto, entitled Esteros. Following a run at both of the above-mentioned film festivals as well as various others, the film is arriving in theaters on November 18, and is a delightfully low key Argentinian drama.

A relatively classical tale in its broad strokes, the film tells the story of Matias and Jeronimo, two long-time best friends who have seemingly become estranged over the years following childhood. Seen in flashbacks interspersed throughout the film, we watch as the young Matias and Jeronimo go...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to acclaimed filmmakers Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon’s charming and romantic fourth feature film, “Lost in Paris.” The film will have its premiere this fall and have a theatrical release in 2017.

Filmed in their signature whimsical style, the feature “stars the filmmakers as a small-town Canadian librarian and a strangely seductive, oddly egotistical vagabond. When Fiona’s (Gordon) orderly life is disrupted by a letter of distress from her 93-year-old Aunt Martha (delightfully portrayed by Academy Award nominee Emmanuelle Riva) who is living in Paris, Fiona hops on the first plane she can and arrives only to discover that Martha has disappeared. In an avalanche of spectacular disasters, she encounters Dom (Abel), the affable,...

Plus: Distribbber.com, Abramorama team up; and more…

The Last King Of Scotland producer Andrea Calderwood will deliver the opening keynote at the Strategic Partners market in Halifax, Canada, next month.

Calderwood, of Potboiler Productions, most recently produced Trespass Against Us starring Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson, set to screen in Toronto and Strategic Partners’ sister event the Atlantic Film Festival.

Other keynote speakers include Marc Hustvedt, the founder and CEO of Peter Chernin-backed Supergravity Pictures, as well as Scandinavian TV producers Liselott Forsman and Lars Hermann.

“The programme this year is dynamic, progressive, and mindful of the issues and opportunities facing producers across the globe,” said programme manager Laura Mackenzie.

“Our speakers are able to provide a unique perspective because of their background and experience, but they are living and breathing the very same challenges facing producers daily.”

Strategic Partners runs from September 15-17. For the full line-up of panels and events click here.

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