DÚO, Meritxell Colell Aparicio’s second feature film will compete in the Zonezine Section at the 25th Malaga Film Festival.
The film, which will be released in cinemas in September by distributor Atalante,
tells the story of two performers as they embark on their final dance tour across the Andes mountains. As they move around this unknown world, their bodies are pushed to new limits and the future of their relationship and artistic collaboration is called into question. DÚO stars choreographer and dancer Mònica Garcia, with whom Colell worked on her debut Con el viento and is a Polar Star Films production, distributed by Atalante in Spain and Begin Again Films internationally.
Synopsis:
Northern Argentina. Carnival. After a year living in her home town with her mother, Mònica resumes a dance duo with her partner. They embark on a tour of the Andes, in an attempt to save their relationship, clinging to the promise: “I will not stop loving what is left of you.” But what are they really doing there? Why are they performing – for what, and for whom? No one asked them to go. Yet there they are, isolated, adrift. What were they searching for?
The growing distance between the couple reveals that the longing they once shared has all but disappeared. The Andes landscape, the women of the plateau and the profound loneliness of the partnership leaves Mònica trying to digest a mix of desires, fears, hopes, memories and reflections. This process leads her back to her origins – to her village, her mother – and ultimately gives her the strength and impetus to choose her own path. To love also means knowing how to let go.
Meritxell Colell Aparicio is considered part of a new generation of Spanish directors whose work has received international recognition and acclaim in recent years. Con el viento, her first feature film as screenwriter and director, developed at the Atelier de la Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival, premiered in 2018 at the Berlinale and won the Silver Biznaga award for Best Film at Malaga Festival (Zonezine Section) that same year. In 2020, Colell Aparicio co-directed the film Transoceánicas with Lucía Vasallo.
DÚO is her second feature-length fiction film, which was inspired, in her own words, from “the need to follow the character of Mònica – after Con el viento –. To accompany her on a new trip back to Argentina, on a contemporary dance tour in remote territories where art is tied to life. Because every transformation catalyses a new crisis.”
DÚO is produced by Polar Star Films in co-production with Pennsylvania Films (Argentina), Paraiso Production (France) and Film Manufacturing (Chile).