Antonia Nava’s Barcelona-based Neo Art Producciones has teamed with Rome’s Pupkin Production to co-produce gay romantic drama “Si las paredes hablasen” (“If Walls Had Ears”), the feature debut of Spanish femme director, Ceres Machado.
Scheduled to roll by this year-end or the first quarter of 2023 in Barcelona and Rome, the film will be produced by Nava and Pupkin’s Rita Rognoni.
Spanish actor Fernando Tejero (“La que se avecina,” “My Heart Goes Boom!”) is attached to star in a cast that will combine Spanish and Italian actors.
Co-written by Machado and scribe Salva Martos Cortés (“Maniac Tales”), “If Walls had Ears” will narrate, in 10 sequences, a Barcelona and Rome-set story of intense love, passion and pain between two men.
They are Juan, a 50 year-old married man who hides his homosexuality, and Leonardo, a 23-year Italian who arrives in Barcelona to try his luck as a soccer player.
Over a decade, they will live their romance, but it remains burdened by Juan’s inability to accept his sexuality and the conflicts that it creates with Leonardo, who despite working in a homophobic environment, is open about his sexual orientation as he tries to break social barriers and stereotypes.
“The concept is universal and, unfortunately, a highly topical issue. Coming out of the closet is still difficult at times and even more so in homophobic contexts and in certain professions. In the end, this is a romantic drama with implicit emotional suspense,” said Nava, who’s attending the 5th Málaga Work in Progress, part of the Málaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ).
Launched in 2011, Neo Art Producciones has built, in recent years, strong relationships with the Italian movie production sector, co-producing such films as “Lasciarsi un giorno a Roma,” directed by “Perfetti sconosciuti’s” Edoardo Leo, who also toplines alongside Spain’s Marta Nieto, and Federico Moccia’s “Mamma qui comando io,” with Aida Folch, currently in post in Barcelona.
Neo Art also partnered on Stefano Cipani’s “My Brother Chases Dinosaurs,” a European Film Academy Young Audience Award winner in 2019, acquired by Disney Plus.
Co-founded in 1994 by Rognoni and helmer Gianni Zanasi, Pupkin Production’s credits include Zanasi’s “Non pensarci,” a 2008 Venice out of competition player co-produced with Beppe Caschetto’s IBC Movies, which Pupkin later adapted as a TV series for Fox and La7. More recent productions are Zanesi’s “The Complexity of Happiness,” teaming up with IBC and RAI Cinema, and Claudio Giovannesi’s “Fiore,” selected by Cannes’ Directors Fortnight in 2016.
For years, Nava headed international co-productions at Barcelona mini-major Filmax, producing such films as Brad Anderson’s “The Machinist” and “Transsiberian,” Jaume Balaguero’s “Fragile” and Gary Oldman starrer “The Backwoods.” She previously worked at Sony-BMG as head of acquisitions and marketing for Spain and Latin America.