Argentina’s Guillermo Francella and writer-directors Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, star and creators of Disney+/Star+ smash hit “El Encargado” (Hulu’s “The Boss”), are re-teaming on “Homo Argentum,” an around 10-episode movie anthology, skewering the frustrations, paranoia and bloodymindedness seething below the surface of modern-day life.
Arguably Argentina’s biggest star alongside Ricardo Darín, Francella demonstrated his acting chops in a bravado turn in Juan José Campanella’s Oscar winning “The Secret of Their Eyes” before starring in Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan,” one of Argentina’s biggest movie exports in the last decade, grossing $20.4 million worldwide.
Cohn and Duprat has consolidated as one of Argentina’s foremost filmmaking forces, with an ever larger international reach, directing Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in “Official Competition” and Robert De Niro in Argentine TV series “Nada.”
“Homo Argentum” is set up at Buenos Aires-based powerhouse Pampa Films, behind “Chinese Takeaway” (2011), “Monzón: A Knockout Blow” a standout Disney series in 2019, and doc feature breakout “Muchachos.”
Set to shoot from Oct. 28., “Homo Argentum” looks like one of a select number of major feature films still going into production in Argentina after Javier Milei’s government has discontinued public-sector film funding at Argentine film-TV agency INCAA.
Now in pre-production, its episodes, lasting one to 20 minutes, will vary in format and content, but “all are within the framework of dramatic comedies, which is our auteurist hallmark, as in films such as ‘Official Competition’ and ‘The Distinguished Citizen’ or in series like ‘El Encargado’ or ‘Nada,” Duprat and Cohn told Variety.
All are contemporary and set in urban spaces, will expose human nature without the multiple layers of political correctness and hypocrisy which people acquire in time to use in daily life and relationships.
The stories’ protagonists “will confront conflicts reflecting the invisible pressure under which we live in a modern-day megalopolis,” said Cohn and Duprat. “We talk about buried contradictions, desires, frustrations, emergencies, paranoia and egotism which result from our social life and, when exposed with no form of filter, present us with profound moral dilemmas.”
“The film presents a panorama of our “national being” in a scathing and sarcastic but at the same time reflexive tone. Argentina is a country of immigrants, whose character is a sum of different origins and nationalities: Millions of Europeans came and mixed with Native Argentinians, creating a powerful and singular idiosyncrasy,” the directors told Variety.
“The anthology format allows to tell an enormous diversity of situations and issues, impossible in a conventional feature. Though every episode stands on its own, their totality marks a collective reflection on contemporary society, in this case Argentina’s but translatable to all the world,” they added.
Francella will appear in all the 10-or-so episodes, in wildly varying roles. “That’s an enormous challenge for an actor. The decision for him to play the protagonist of all the episodes is “one of the concepts of the film,” said Cohn and Duprat.
“Homo Argentum” is influenced by films from the Golden Age of Italian cinema, like the 20-part “The Monsters,” as well as iconic titles such as “Down and Dirty,” “An Average Little Man” and “Viva Italia,” among other gems of a sarcastic Italian comedy of which Francella and the directors are admirers.
Duprat and Cohn will also take executive producer credits. The film is produced by Pampa Films’ Pablo Enrique Bossi, Pol Bossi, Agustín Bossi and Maxi Lasansky.
“Homo Argentum” will shoot 95% in Argentina.
While Argentina’s middle class had been hit hard by soaring inflation, it is only an extreme case, said Pol Bossi at Pampa Films, which is also behind Toronto Discovery title “Linda,” a drama exploring family dynamics.
“It’s a format that can be exported or the subject of remakes. Francella will be able to deliver tour-de-force performances, playing characters across the board,” he added. “Also, the combination of Guillermo, Gastón and Mariano guarantees a broad audience reach.”
Cohn and Duprat’s “The Distinguished Citizen” won Oscar Martínez a Volpi Cup best actor award at 2016’s Venice Festival. Francella’s credits also include 2013’s “Lion’s Heart” which sold over 1.7 million admissions in Argentina, and another huge hit, 2020’s “The Heist of the Century,” which made the second biggest first-day bow of any Argentine film in history.
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