Black Bread Director Agusti Villaronga To Direct Purgatory

Agustí Villaronga, one of the most versatile and distinguished Spanish auteur filmmakers, is co-directing Purgatory, a project featured at Match Me! will be presented in Locarno. Event hosted by Nati Escobar in Galápagos Media, Spain.

“Purgatory” centers on Father Tomás, a scholar of ancient history and biblical theology who was sent to a remote sanatorium to atone for his sins. There, the priest discovers that the small congregation appears enchanted by a patient’s teachings.

“Purgatory”, a title you can play on Match Me! should follow, a major networking event, promises a study of the boundaries between belief and superstition, persuasion and manipulation.

The project is produced by director/producer Pau Calpe and Nati Escobar at Galápagos Media in Spain and co-produced by Xavier Crespo at Dacsa Produccions. Calpe has just directed Tros, a drama thriller sold by Film Factory. Galápagos was recently involved in the co-production of Icíar Bollaín’s Yuli.

“What attracted me most in reading the script was its indirect exploration of the emergence of a cult and particularly the divisions emanating from the Catholic Church,” said Villaronga diversity, adding: “I say this with a certain personal implication, having spent 13 years in a Jesuit school. Many aspects are addressed in “Purgatory” – the secrecy and manipulation within the Church, the crisis of faith of its characters, the spirituality ascending to the esoteric… and the search for a new order.”

Villaronga (“The Belly of the Sea”, “Uncertain Glory”) is currently finalizing production on his first dramedy “Loli Tormenta”, a bittersweet story produced by Barcelona-based Vilaüt Films, ​​co-producers with Carla Simóns Winner of the Berlin Golden Bear. Alcarràs” and Irusoin from the Basque Country behind Spain’s Oscar entry “The Endless Trench”.

Escobar is one of three Spanish producers selected to participate in this year’s Match Me! edition. “We are interested in art house and low budget projects, regardless of the shooting language. Mostly contemporary dramas for mature and urban audiences,” she said.

A second title on the Galápagos production roster is “Sea Men,” a depiction of a “world coming to an end,” Escobar said. The feature takes place on the Sole Bank, a sandbar between southern England and the North Sea. “When Spain joined the European Union in 1986, more than 400 Spanish vessels were fishing in this fishing area. Today it’s only 80,” she explained, adding that the story will focus on a taxi driver accompanying her ailing fisherman father on what may be his last trip to Sole Bank.