Boutique Producer Señor y Señora Preps Aritz Moreno Karate Biopic, Samurai Series, Irati Gorostidi’s ‘Anekumen’ (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comAnnika Pham In a clear move toward commercial fare, Spain’s boutique production house Señor y Señora, present this week at Madrid’s ECAM Forum with Pedro Hernando’s work in progress “A Whale,” is lining up its biggest slate ever. | Heading the outfit’s scripted lineup is “Karateka,” Señor y Señora co-founder Aritz Moreno’s third feature after his EFA nominated breakthrough debut “Advantages of Travelling by Train” and dark thriller “Moscas” which bowed at Sitges and Rotterdam.
Budgeted at over €6 million ($6.5 million), “Karateka” tells the larger-than-life story of Spanish karate queen and Olympic gold medallist Sandra Sánchez. “It’s the story of a woman’s extraordinary achievement, both on a sports and personal level,” says Moreno, currently location scouting in Japan where he resides. “Sandra won Spain’s first-ever karate Olympic gold medal aged 39 in Japan, while her long-time Japanese rival Kiyou Shimizu was 27.
On a personal level, when she was in her twenties, she had to put her sport aside for some time to care for her mother who was suffering from cancer.
Her Federation dismissed her for being too old when she wanted to compete again. It’s thanks to the support of Jesús del Moral, a trainer as brilliant as atypical [whom she then married], that she managed to stay at the top level,” Moreno explains.
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