Chile’s Infractor and Pejeperro, France’s Promenades and Belgium’s Transit-Transat have teamed up to co-produce “Kaye,” the sophomore directorial effort of Juan Cáceres, a Variety Chilean Talent to Track after his debut “Perro Bomba” nabbed the Ibero-American Prize at the Málaga Festival Zonacine in 2019, among other international awards.
“Kaye” is being presented at the ongoing Málaga co-production forum’s MAFF.
The film focuses on Yeka’s childhood, which comes to an end when a stray bullet takes her best friend. Mesmerized by impunity, Yeka infiltrates a family of traffickers, seeking the truth but finding results which confront all of her prejudices.
“‘Kaye’ is a drama with elements of thriller and ‘magical capitalism,’ ” Cáceres told Variety. “We are building a film that works as a platform to expand voices of the marginalized children of Chile to the whole world, along with the same young and diverse team that accompanied me in my first feature.”
Project has gained fuel through BioBio, Bolivia and Ñuble Labs, and the script’s definitive version was finished at the Cannes Festival’s Residence program.
“We believe it’s essential to continue producing an auteur cinema which expresses a critical sense of social processes globally, with stories that are able to speak to audiences around the world,” said Alejandro Ugarte at Infractor.
“We also underline our commitment to recover audiences in a country with a great cinema tradition, but whose population doesn’t watch its own cinema,” Ugarte furthered.
“Kaye” is scheduled to begin shooting in March 2023.
Infractor, Pejeperro and Promenades previously partnered on “Perro Bomba,” which highlighted racism in Chile’s capital, Santiago.
“I immediately understood that I had before me an emerging director carrying a very fresh point of view on how to put on the big screen an untold Chilean reality,” said producer Samuel Chauvin at Promenades Films (“Perro Bomba,” Sofia Quirós Ubeda’s “Land of Ashes”).
Chauvin added, “I’m thrilled to continue this political and artistic work with Juan and his producers Alejandro Ugarte and Esteban Sandoval and make this new film and make this new reality visible.”
A Chilean company founded in 2015 by Ugarte, Infractor’s editorial line is defined by its social concerns and a hybrid cinema straddling fiction and documentary and specialized in young talent. Another project on the Chilean company’s slate is “Patio de Chacales” (“Yard of Jackals”), by Chilean first-timer Diego Figueroa.
“Yard of Jackals” is set during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, but has a dystopian, timeless perspective. It tackles totalitarian aesthetics, meshing horror tropes and an auteurist tone, as announced by the producers.
Casting will be led by Nestor Cantillana (Sebastian Lelio’s Oscar winner “A Fantastic Woman”); the feature’s script is being assessed by scriptwriter Gonzalo Maza, a co-scribe on “A Fantastic Woman” and a Berlin best screenplay winner for “Woman” in 2017).