What’s On Show at Conecta Fiction’s Euroregion NAEN Showcase

Seven projects will be introduced to an industry audience at the first Euroregion NAEN pitch competition, held on Tuesday Sept. 14 at Pamplona’s Conecta Fiction. “Being a first edition, the projects are pretty diverse and in divergent phases of development. But behind them are innovative visions and interesting propositions,” says Ana Herrera Isasi, head of Navarre’s Strategic Digital and Audiovisual Projects Department. A drill down on the titles:

“Between Walls,” (“Entre muros,” Itziar Minguez, Pedro Fuentes, Bizagu Entertainment)

Set in Franco’s 195os Spain, and billed as an epic love story between two women who meet in a criminal psychiatric ward, Concepción consigned there for killing her husband and Amelia for “deviant” sexual behavior. A banner high-end series from San Sebastian’s Bixagu Entertainment, set up in 2020 by Iñaki Gómez, a former producer at top Basque film company Irusoin, and Pablo Echart.

“Gaia,” (Carol Butron, Carlos Limón and Julia Fernández, Aura Pictures)

Set in 2026 between big city Madrid and the lush verdant landscapes of Northern Spain and southern France, with only one year before global warming becomes irreversible, Gala, who works in a waste management company in Madrid, begins to have visions where she feels the world’s pain. A six-part shorter format series from go-ahead Aura Pictures, a dystopic narrative and transmedia specialist whose extended short “Faith,” directed by Butron, premieres at Sitges on Oct. 9.

“Final Cut,” (Rose of Dolls, Oliver Mend, A Film to Kill For)

“For some students this is the end of the school year. For others… simply the end,” the synopsis gleefully announces. In it, a stellar film school student decides to recreate iconic horror movie deaths in her graduate project – only to see her whole team die one by one in the manner of these murders. Ingeniously melding reality and fiction, the short form “Final Cut” will mix eight 12-minute episodes and one minute micro-episodes supposedly uploaded to social media by the killer, allowing characters and the audience to react at one and the same time. From the makers of the first Basque-language slasher, “It’s Your Turn.”

“Last Song,” (“Azken Abestia,” Lara Izagirre, Gariza Films)

Six stories told in six episodes about women attending six different concerts on nights which will move the dial on their sense of self and foundation relationships. Created by Izagirre, one of the rising stars of Basque cinema after a Goya win for “An Autumn Without Berlin,” and set up at Gariza Films, which has carved out a go-ahead reputation for Basque movies of international appeal and feminist passions – think “Akelarre.” To be shot in Basque, Gariza’s first series and for Basque fiction a groundbreaking proposition.

“Luis Mariano, All the Colors of the Rainbow,” (Julia Juániz, Manuel Espín, Lumière Produkzioak)

The latest from indefatigable producer José María Lara (“The Sky Turns,” “Aupa Extebeste!”), a dramedic doc-fiction feature on a Basque tenor and film star billed as Europe’s king of operetta, presenting the star, the legend and the man.

“Matadero Franklin,” (Juan Carlos Cueto, Rocío Martínez, Llano, Black Panther Films, Invercine Producciones, Spain, Chile)

Announced in April, a gangster thriller series which take a stark look at the glamor, aspirations and brutality of Chile’s 194os mafia. A banner project of  Spain’s Black Panther Films and Chile’s Invercine Prods. (“Dignidad”), it’s now gathering creative steam with the incorporation as showrunner-writers of Juan Carlos Cueto and Rocío Martínez Llano, creators of “Toy Boy,” “Plastic Sea,” and the legendary original “The Boarding School.” A show to track.

“Via Sacra,” (Manuel Derriba, Vicent Ravale, Elvire Muñoz, Macondo Productions, France)

Trans-Pyrenean Noir, with echoes of “The Bridge,” as a Spanish serial rapist is found murdered on a Summer Monday in Saint Jean Pied de Port, at the French end of the St. James Way. A video arrives at the Diario de Navarra announcing that “Archangel Michael” will kill a “sinner” every day and rest on Sundays. A French police officer and Spanish civil guard initiative a race against time to halt him. Produced by Charline de Lépine’s Macondo, the company behind hit political thriller “Spin” and “Speakerine.”