Overview
- The drama premiered in competition at Cannes on Saturday and drew a seven-minute standing ovation.
- Javier Bardem plays a celebrated director who hires his estranged daughter, played by Victoria Luengo, to act in his new film.
- Sorogoyen used unusual methods, backed by Movistar Plus+ and France’s Le Pacte, including shooting a 20-minute restaurant prologue on day one, keeping the leads from meeting beforehand, and mixing digital, 35mm, 16mm and 8mm in color and black and white.
- The film-within-the-film, titled Desert, is set in the Western Sahara and was shot on Fuerteventura in Spain’s Canary Islands.
- Early reviews highlight Bardem’s nuanced performance and the film’s exploration of on-set power and storytelling, reinforcing Sorogoyen’s growing international profile.