Mexican producer-director Iria Gómez Concheiro is unveiling at Guadalajara “Here Be Dragons,” a co-production between her own label Ciudad Cinema – alongside exec producer Rodrigo Ríos Legaspi – and Colombia’s Trilce Cinema, with Alejandro Rey and Claudia Sánchez.
Set in a vaguely anachronistic 2040, “Here Be Dragons” is a sci-fi drama-adventure movie which follows 18-year old Candelaria as she tries to survive an uncertain, devastated country where sinister military forces rule.
Fearing an imminent barbaric invasion, Candelaria flees from her father and a chaotic, brutal regime, while undertaking an initiatory trip to unveil the truth about love and this menace. The title refers to the Latin inscription “hic sunt dracones” (dragons are here) used on old navigational maps to signal unexplored or dangerous areas.
Project “Here Be Dragons” wil be prsented at the Guadalajara Festival Co-Production Meetings from Sunday.
Previously it has been put through the Morelia Lab, where it won a special mention, as well as the Brazil Lab, Huelva Festival Co-Production Forum and Sørfond Norway. The director of Sundance player “The Cinema Hold Up” and “Before Oblivion” told Variety that “There Be Dragons’’ “responds to my need to generate a reflection on an issue that many nations of the world experience: the culture of fear.”
She added “I want to propose a specific, three-dimensional feminine gaze that allows us to see the world from its flesh. It’s important for me to achieve this, especially in these times where hegemonic narratives still insist on proposing masculine visions about women.”
According to Gómez Concheiro, “There Be Dragons” will offer a gloomy aesthetic consistent with the story’s repressive context in opposition to Candelaria’s luminosity. Plot will be developed in an anachronistic scenario, mixing old elements suspended in time with other technological elements, making the audiences envision a new future. The costumes will take references from steampunk aesthetics, offering a pre-apocalyptic world’s rarefied atmosphere.
Key cast includes this year’s Best Actress Ariel winner Mercedes Hernández for Fernanda Veladez’s “Identifying Features,” Damián Alcázar (Netflix’s “Narcos”), and Raúl Briones (Kenya Márquez’s “Asfixia”).
Aldo Max Rodríguez (Emilio Portes ‘s “Belzebuth”) will serve as music composer; cinematography will be the responsibility of María José Secco, a best cinematography winner for “La Jaula de Oro” at 2014’s Ariel Awards. Shooting is scheduled for the second half of 2022.
Here Be Dragons
Credit: Ciudad Cinema