Top Latin American Arthouse Title ‘Puan,’ from María Alche, Benjamin Naishtat, Boarded by Luxbox (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comJohn Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Paris-based Luxbox has snapped up sales rights on “Puan,” the awaited new film from María Alche and Benjamín Naishtat, two of Argentina’s fastest-rising directors.
The new title co-stars Leonardo Sbaraglia (“Pain and Glory,” “Wild Tales”). “Puan” catches Alché after she won San Sebastian’s prestigious Horizontes Award in 2018 for her Visit Films-sold feature debut, “A Family Submerged,” before teaming on “Puan” with Naishat who, the same year at San Sebastian, won director, actor (Dario Grandinetti) and cinematography (Pedro Sotero) in main competition for “Rojo,” sparking a rave Variety review. “Rojo” denounced the tacit collusion of many Argentineans in the violence of Argentina’s extreme right just months before the coup d’etat which brought the Junta to power.
Also written by Alché and Naishtat, “Puan” looks like another state of the nation take, delivered, however, in lighter comic terms, set at the “weirdly amazing” – Naishtat’s words – Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Buenos Aires, known as “Puan.” Here, philosophy lecturer Marcelo (Marcelo Subiotto, “Incident Light”) sees his life suddenly turned upside down by the death of his mentor, Professor Caselli.
He expects to inherit Caselli’s chair, until challenged by a charismatic, seductive contender, Rafael Sujarchuk, just back from a high post at a university in Europe.
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