Notícias

San Sebastian — Sales house The Match Factory is launching exclusively via Variety the trailer of “Patrick,” Gonçalo Waddington’s debut feature, as the film world premieres in the Official Selection at the San Sebastian Festival.

Screening in main competition, “Patrick” recounts the story of an eight-year old Portuguese boy, Mario, who is re-discovered years later after being imprisoned in a Parisian jail, aged 20, now called Patrick. It is loosely inspired by the true-life story of an 11-year old child called Rui Pedro who was abducted in Portugal in 1998 and never found.

Patrick has become a borderline criminal who lives with Mark, a 45-year old artist in Paris, having been involved in child pornography since his abduction. He must choose between a lengthy prison sentence or returning to his family in Portugal where, because of his abduction, he would be given a much softer sentence.

Lead actor Hugo Fernandes, a French thesp of Portuguese origin,...

The Darren Aronofsky-produced Brazilian title “Pacified,” by American director Paxton Winters, Alice Winocour’s French-German astronaut drama “Proxima” and Polish film director Małgorzata Szumowska’s religious thriller “The Other Lamb” are among the six final competition selections for September’s 67th San Sebastian Film Festival.

Also vying for San Sebastian’s Golden Shell will be U.K. drama “Rocks,” from “Suffragette” director Sarah Gavron, Sonthar Gyal’s Chinese production “Lhamo And Skalbe” and Gonçalo Waddington’s Portuguese-German kidnap mystery “Patrick.”

Adding three works from female filmmakers, San Sebastian has brought the number of competition contenders directed by women to six, just over one-third of the section.

“Pacified,” starring Bukassa Kabengele, Cassia Nascimento and José Loreto, centers on the friendship between a street-smart 13-year-old girl and an ex-trafficker who live in a Rio favela.

In “Proxima,” Eva Green stars as an astronaut and single mother who signs up for a year-long space mission,...

Founded in 1998, O Som e a Furia is one of Portugal’s leading production companies, and has produced works by Portuguese auteurs such as Miguel Gomes, Ivo Ferreira, Sandro Aguilar, and João Nicolau.

Owned by Luís Urbano and Sandro Aguilar, the company has developed a clear editorial line dedicated to Portuguese and foreign auteurs who develop films with crossover potential that can succeed on the international festival circuit.

Over the past two decades the company has worked with a consistent group of directors and has developed a network of regular co-production partners, in particular in France, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland.

Urbano says that one of his key contributions is at a curatorial level: “We aim to work with directors who have a distinctive point of view and to evolve with them over their careers. In the case of a new director, I can help them create a distinctive mark.”

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