In project
Danish Lone Scherfig adapts the novel by Hernán Rivera Letelier
The project of ‘The movie accountant’ comes from afar. It is an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Hernán Rivera Letelier from 2009, who grew up and worked for years in the mining community of the Atacama desert. At first it was going to be directed by Isabel Coixet, from a script by Walter Salles (winner of two BAFTAs for ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ in 2005 and’ Central Station of Brazil ‘in 1999) and the Spaniard Rafa Russo (‘ Rain in the shoes’). Coixet fell out of the project, which the Danish Lone Scherfig (‘An Education’) has inherited.
Scherfin has decided that the film will star the Argentine-French actress Bérénice Bejo, nominated for an Oscar for ‘The Artist’ (2001) and the Spanish winner of two Goya awards, Antonio de la Torre. The script remains the same, and the film will be shot in Spanish.
Set in the 60s in the Atacama desert (Chile), in the film Bejo will get into the shoes of María Magnolia, a woman who, despite the harsh living conditions, manages to maintain her creative concerns. His passion for cinema will be transferred to his daughter, María Margarita (who will be played by Sara Becker), who will become the “storyteller” of the town, where most cannot afford a movie ticket. By telling and reinventing the stories he has seen on screen, he will inspire hope in his people and reflect his own struggle through fiction.
Although of Buenos Aires origin, Bérénice Bejo began her work as an actress in the 90s in France, both in film and on television. The actress made her American film debut with ‘Gentleman’s Destiny’ in 2001, but it was the role of Peppy Miller, the young dancer from the award-winning ‘The Artist’, which made her known internationally. At the moment he is filming again with Michel Hazanavicius, his current partner, a French zombie comedy, ‘Z (comme Z)’ and is planning the television series ‘Josephine and Napoleon’. In addition, he has starred in ‘Il colibrí’ by Francesca Archibugi.
For his part, Antonio de la Torre, whose character, the male lead, has not yet been revealed, is one of the most popular Spanish actors who makes several films a year. His beginnings are linked to Canal Sur, as a reporter. De la Torre was nominated in 2020 for the Goya Awards for his protagonist in ‘La tinchera infinita’, a prize he had already won in 2019 for ‘El Reino’ and, as a supporting actor, for ‘Azuloscurocasinegro’, in 2006. He has pending of premiere ‘Stories to not tell’, where he has worked with Maribel Verdú, Alexandra Jiménez and José Coronado, and the Spanish-French co-production ‘Entre la vie et la mort’.
In addition to directing ‘An Education’, which won the Audience Award at Sundance and was nominated for three Oscars and eight BAFTAs, Lone Scherfig has recently written and directed (2019) ‘The Kindness of Strangers’. On ‘The Movie Counter’, the director told Variety that it “reflects the magical role of storytelling on stage and on the big screen, as a window to the world, a place of healing and that brings people together.”
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