A f ilm by
Marco Berger
S t a r r i n g
GUILLERMO PFENING
LAUTORO DELGADO
AILIN SALAS
www.dos-elefantes.com
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Dos Elefantes will be the fifth feature film
by the award winning young Argentinian
director Marco Berger.
Marco (37) has with limited resources already managed to
gain a worldwide audience and fan base with his films, in
2012 he funded his third film, “Hawaii” (2013), solely with
fan support via a Kickstarter campaign.
His latest film Dos Elefantes will be produced by Pedro Irusta
who composed the arresting soundtracks for all of Marco’s
films and producer of “Hawaii” and Vinca Gilbert Dascent
- who financed Marco’s first feature film, Plan B through her
company Hap! TV Latin America.
Dos Elefantes will be Marco’s last low budget film before
moving onto larger scale productions.
Principal photography for Dos Elefantes will begin in Buenos
Aires in July, Milan in September and Mar Del Plata in
November 2015.
The film is supported by
the Lombardia Film
Commission.
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LOGLINE
The complexities of a ‘Bromance’ leads two friends to confuse
friendship for love in an experience that leads them to accept
their own heterosexuality.
SYNOPSIS
ACT I “JULIETA”
ACT II “ANALÍA”
ACT III “TWO ELEPHANTS”
2012
2014
2015
Esteban (36) visits his ex-girlfriend
Julieta (28) where he meets Ivan
(Julieta’s current boyfriend).
More than a year later Julieta
is a thing of the past whilst Ivan
and Esteban remain friends.
That summer Ivan decides to visit
Esteban in his hometown of Milan.
The following year Analía and
Esteban is now dating the Romina
(30). To Esteban Ivan’s arrival
represents the perfect ‘escape’
from his relationship and an excuse
to have a lot of fun. On a night out
in a bar in Milan they meet the
beautiful Analía; the night ends
with three going back to Estaban’s
place for a threesome.
One day Esteban discovers Analía
cheating on him, although he loves
Analía he knows her infidelity is
caused because of his inability to
commit properly to the relationship.
Heartbroken,
emotional
and
confused, Esteban finds himself
drawn closer than ever to Ivan and
their friendship becomes more…
This sexual adventure brings the
friendship of Esteban and Ivan
even closer, simultaneously a love
begins to develop between Analía
and Esteban.
After a few intense days, the
friends come to accept their
absolute heterosexuality and Ivan
encourages Esteban to make
things work with Analía.
(Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Ivan suggests to Julieta that Esteban
stay with him instead of at her
house, Julieta agrees (to keep the
peace and calm Ivan’s jealousy).
This arrangement leads the two
men to spend a week together
where they share a series of bizarre
situations; not least having to use
the landlady’s bathroom to bathe
together. A mix of desire and
competition starts to transform
their friendship into something
else… but will anything happen?
(Milan, Italy)
(Mar del Plata, Argentina)
Esteban (now a together), bored
of the cold in Milan make plans to
visit Esteban at his summer house
in Mar del Plata.
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DIREC T OR’ S STAT EM ENT
“I think this new genre called “bromance” has not been explored in
depth. Sexual desire between heterosexual men, it’s not socially accepted.
In general terms, people think that if a man feels attracted to another
man, for whatever reason, he must be gay.
There is also this widespread idea, that if a man
has intercourse with another man he “turns” gay…
and if he doesn’t repeat the experience it’s because
he is repressing it, you know, in fact, this idea is
very present even in the homosexual community.
I want this movie to question this idea. I believe that a man can desire
another man, he can look at him, have a relationship with him and
even sexual intercourse without meaning that he is homosexual. It simply
means that he had this experience. He may have even enjoyed it, but it
doesn’t make him gay, he is still heterosexual. A man can feel this kind of
attraction, but this doesn’t mean that his desire is homosexual. I consider
that the recurrent desire for both men and women can be considered
bisexuality, but not an occasional relationship, which can be just that.
It simply means fulfilling a desire and breaking the social repression that
doesn’t allow such contact and questions the sexuality of the individual.
Because of my previous films, many viewers will assume that the main
characters are both repressed gay men and that they will end up together.
I believe this bias will help gay people to accept at the same time as the
main characters, that there is no repressed homosexuality in this story but
only two heterosexual men allowing themselves to fulfill a desire and break
the barrier of hysteria, which frequently floats around any relationship.
I have never seen this statement in any film, I believe
it will be a very interesting story to tell.”
Marco Berger
ABOUT THE
FILMMAKERS
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MARCO BERGER / WRITER / DIRECTOR
Marco Berger is an award
winning Argentine film director
and screenwriter born December
8, 1977 in Norway and raised
in Argentina.
The judging committee commented “Ausente” was “an original
screenplay, an innovative aesthetic and a sophisticated approach, which
creates dynamism. A unique combination of homoerotic desire, suspense
and dramatic tension...” “Ausente” also won a Condor Award for Artistic
Innovation in Argentina.
Marco studied at the Universidad
Del Cine in Buenos Aires and
made his directorial debut in
2007 with the short films “Una
última voluntad” and “El reloj”
in 2008. “El Reloj” was part of
the Cinéfondation competition at
Cannes Film Festival and Sundance
in 2009.
“Hawaii”, (Marco’s third feature film), was commercially released in
Germany, France and the US and received positive reviews by film critics
and audiences. Boyd Van Hoeij, from The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “The
third feature of Argentinian director Marco Berger, a two hander starring
Manuel Vignau and Mateo Chiarino, is a solid home run.” “Mariposa”,
his fourth feature film, was premiered at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival.
His first feature film “Plan B”,
was presented at a number of
international film festivals including;
Buenos Aires, Rome, London). In
2011, Berger won the Teddy Award
for Best Feature Film at the Berlin
International Film Festival for his
second film “Ausente”.
In 2011 Marco founded his well respected actor’s workshop in Buenos
Aires. Marco teaches his students; improvisation, false casting and call
backs, acting research, the reading of classic works and working both
in front of the camera and without. The workshops are aimed at people
with or without acting experience as well as directors or film students who
want to break into acting/or understand better the process.
ABOUT THE
FILMMAKERS
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PEDRO IRUSTA / PRODUCER / COMPOSER
Pedro Irusta is a 29 year old
film producer, composer and
web developer born in Buenos
Aires, Argentina.
Pedro has been composing music
for media, feature films and
shorts since 2007. His goal as a
composer is to merge sound and
vision to create lasting cinematic
memories through music. Pedro is
well known for his intense creative
process which is so detailed he
adheres to the necessity of the
smallest of sounds so that he can
examine every nuance of notes in
relation to the whole composition
being built.
Pedro has worked with Marco Berger for seven years and produced
Marco’s 2013 film “Hawaii”.
Pedro organized the successful Kickstarter.com campaign to raise the
funding for the film. Under Pedro’s guidance, Hawaii was distributed
internationally by Media Luna New Films and the distribution rights were
sold in the US, UK, France, German speaking territories, Puerto Rico and
Honduras amongst other territories.
Pedro is a young producer, interested in adapting the traditional
production rules to suit the needs to meet the reality of today’s modern
film industry which is being constantly redefined in the last decade with
the onslaught of the internet and new technologies. Pedro’s experience
working in every area of film production (sound, sound post production,
composing, camera, visual post production, directing, acting…) gives
him invaluable empathy to meet the needs of the crew.
As a producer, he holds the same
philosophy; to be the best liaison
possible between the artistic needs
of a filmmaker with the pragmatic
reality that is necessary to make
them possible.
Contact:
Email: [email protected]
Mob: +54 9 11 3924 0098
ABOUT THE
FILMMAKERS
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VINCA L GILBERT-DASCENT / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Vinca was born in Birmingham,
England in 1974, she now lives in
between London, Milan and when
she needs a decent piece of steak
Buenos Aires.
Vinca has worked for The
Independent,
Financial
Times
Business,
Forum
Capital
International,
ArtReview,
as
arts advisor to TechImp Spa
internationally and with European
CEO to produce their Art & Family
Office report that was distributed
inside the magazine during the
World Economic Forum in Davos
in 2015.
Vinca organised with the Design Hotels their first Future Forum of Design
symposium with; Ora Ito, Karim Rashid, Piero Lissoni, Fabio Novembre,
Marcel Wanders, Hans Hollien, Werner Aisslinger and Jean-Michel Gathy.
With Hap! TV Italia and Hap! TV Latin America Srl she filmed hundreds of
interviews with artists, architects, industrial designers, collectors, gallerists,
dealers, fair directors… Vinca also organised projects during the Salone
del Mobile in Milan, most notably a project in Milan involving; Boffi,
Kartell, Aqua Creations, Damiani diamonds, Kvadrat, The Trend Group,
Piero Lissoni, Angela Missoni, Matali Crasset, Vedovamazzei, Italian
graffiti artist Dumbo, Fabio Novembre, Maki Gherzi, Patrick Tuttufouco
and Hans Hollein.
Hap! TV Latin America Srl (based in Buenos Aires) raised finance for
film (Marco Berger Plan B), funded the first Argentine gallery Appetite
to attend Frieze Art Fair, developed several art programme formats and
supported arts projects with both established and emerging artists.
Vinca has most recently acted as advisory film producer for the second
part of the conceptual arthouse trilogy Mancanza (Dir. Stefano Odoardi)
She is currently in pre-production for a new format documentary
GANGS!, developing its sister art project GANGS LTD (Luxury to Dream)
and developing the art installation project “Containers”.
Vinca will be in charge of film finance for Dos Elefantes and use her
experience to bring an arts twist to merchandise, marketing, PR and
social media activity for the film.
Contact:
Email: [email protected]
Office: +44 207 813 2553
UK Mob:+44 7480 839 507
IT Mob: + 39 392 49 88 160
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About
The Cast
GUILLERMO PFENING /
ESTEBAN
LAUTARO DELGADO /
IVAN
AILIN SALAS /
ANALIA
Guillermo was born in Córdoba,
Argentina in 1978. He graduated
from the Raúl Serrano’s School of
Dramatic Art. Guillermo is wellknown in Argentina both for his
roles in prime time soap operas
and film. He has had lead roles
in films directed by Pablo Trapero
(”Nacido y Criado”, 2006) and
Lucía Puenzo (”Wakolda”, 2013)
for which he won the Condor
Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Lautaro first began studying acting
at 9 years old. He later graduated
as a thespian from the EMAD
school. He has had lead roles in
“Topos” (For which he won the Best
Actor Award in the New York City
International Film Festival) and
“Crónica de una fuga”, directed
by Israel Adrián Caetano (Cannes,
Official Selection).
Ailín was born in Aracaju, Brazil
in 1993. She has been acting in
Argentina since 2007 and in her
short career she has had major
roles in Film and TV including
“XXY” (2007) and “El Niño Pez”
(2009) (directed by Lucía Puenzo)
and a lead role in the Argentinian
adaptation of “In Treatment” for
which she was nominated as
Revelation in the Condor Awards.
Ailin had a lead role in Marco’s
latest film, “Mariposa”.
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MARKETING
An
innovative
multi-platform Mag, Snowboard
magazine,
marketing campaign for the film and Bizarre. Dave has also cowill encompass; a series of portraits written a couple of short films
of cast and crew, Dos Elefantes with Spike Jonze. Through his work
posters created by both emerging on the Big Brother videos he was
and established Argentinian and also one of the original creators
Italian contemporary artists, an of the television show Jackass and
online and print (limited edition) has appeared in numerous Jackass
magazine for the film, a specially episodes. During his time at Big
commissioned coffee table book Brother Dave can be credited with
with a video project investigating launching the careers of numerous
the films subject of ‘Bromance’ Jackass stars, including Johnny
by Milan based photographer Knoxville, Steve-O, and Chris Pontius
Leonardo Corrallini
Dave has also brought fame to
(www.leonardocorallini.com).
hundreds of skateboarding stars.
Leonardo is the Founder and Creative
Director of the Made in Milan studio
(www.madeinmilan.it), his clients
include; Valentino, Gianfranco
Ferre, Vogue Italia, Antonio Croce,
Biasia, Erkan Coruh, Fay, Gas,
Mandarina Duck, Pitti Immagine,
Virginia Von Furstenberg, 3 Italia,
Heineken, Italia Independent,
Leica Camera Italia, Mercedes
Benz Italia, Nike, Pantene, Renault,
Sky, Unesco, Unicredit Banca,
Vodafone, Maxim, Vibe Magazine
U.S.A., Vice Magazine, Vanity Fair,
Vogue L’uomo.
Dave Carnie invented the word
‘Bromance’ so we thought who
better to write the forward to the Dos
Elefantes Bromance book than the
inventor of the word himself. Dave
Carnie is a freelance writer and has
had articles published in Rolling
Stone, Hustler, The Skateboard
For the backstage photography we
will use a series of photographers
from different photographic genres.
In Italy we will work with award
winning photojournalist Salvatore
Esposito (www.salvatoreesposito.it)
Salvatore Esposito is an Italian
documentary
photographer
who lives in Naples. Salvatore
began work as a photojournalist
for a newspaper where he
specialized
in
documenting
the world of organized crime.
After leaving the newspaper he
began work as a freelancer for the
Fotogramma Agency in Milan and
the historic French Agency Sipa
Press in Paris.
As a photographer, he specialized
in long-term projects and explores
issues such as immigration,
prostitution and organized crime.
Salvatore’s epic Hell of Scampia
has been published in worldwide,
winning numerous international
awards including; the Sony
Award, the NPPA Award, the Prix
du Documentaire and the Terry
O‘Neill Award. The Hell of Scampia took Salvatore
two and a half years with Salvatore
earning the trust of dealers in one
of the world’s most dangerous
gangs, the Camorra.
In 2008 he joined Contrasto Agency
as Staff Photographer and in 2014
was invited by Manfrotto to become
Ambassador of the company. In 2015 Salvatore was the winner
in the documentary category at
the COFFI Film Festival in Italy for
his first short film documentary
“CELL ZERO”. Salvatore’s works
have been published in; The
Sunday Times Magazine, National
Geographic, Vanity Fair, L’Espresso,
International amongst others.
In addition to the above the film
will have exclusive content on its
site and social media.
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DISTRIBUTION
MERCHANDISING
The producers of Dos Elefantes
appreciate that the medium
in which film is watched has
changed considerably with the
emergence of technology.
A limited edition collection
of clothing and accessories
will be available to purchase
exclusively online via our site
and through our partners. Items
from the film; contemporary
art and a limited collection of
clothing designed for the lead
actors will also be available to
purchase. The limited edition
posters created for the film by
both emerging and established
artists from Argentina and Italy
will be available to buy with
a percentage of the profits
donated to charity.
We are all for breaking some
rules and adapting others so
in addition to online platforms
and tradition film distribution
channels we will have a series
of international ambassadors
(a mixture of film aficionados
and
general
cool
and
interesting creative folk) to host
Dos Elefantes screening events
around the world.
SALES
Dos Elefantes will be available to
buy on the dos-elefantes site, via
partner websites and in selected
retailers internationally.
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In The
Press
“The third feature of Argentinian director Marco Berger, a two-hander
starring Manuel Vignau and Mateo Chiarino, is a solid home run. (...)
The agony of unspoken same-sex desire is impressively prolonged to
feature length in Hawaii, the third and by far most mature feature of
Argentinian director Marco Berger.”
Boyd van Hoeij,
The Hollywood Reporter
“Argentinean helmer Marco Berger’s debut feature, “Plan B,” (...)
Thoroughly engaging, offthecuff perfs by a winsome cast neatly
counterpoint Berger’s uncompromising aesthetic, while the film’s zerobudget, HD-shot minimalism lends itself to comedy surprisingly well,
accentuating the start-and-stop rhythms of unwilling attraction. Amply
rewarding for patient viewers...”
Ronnie Scheib, Variety
“After three different takes on homoeroticism, played for comedy in ‘Plan
B,’ suspense in ‘Absent’ and as a reflection on power-play in ‘Hawaii,’
‘Butterfly’ is a non-gay sci-fi fantasy played out in two parallel worlds, one
dramatic, the other more comedic, where the Butterfly Effect gives two
lovers a new possibility of love. Ailin Salas, a much-sought after actress
who has appeared in films by Lucia Puenzo (“XXY,” “The Fish Girl”), Pablo
Fendrik (“Blood Appears”), Milagros Mumenthaller (“Back To Stay”) and
most recently Santiago Palavecino (“Some Girls) stars alongside Javier de
Pietro, the young co-star of ‘Absent’.”
John Hopewell, Variety
“(In ‘Absent’) young writer-director-editor Marco Berger, who explored
adolescent sexual confusion in his debut feature Plan B, shows plenty
of cinematic savvy and technique (...) Berger’s basic idea is to overlay
an individual psychological drama with thriller elements. The result is a
sophisticated film full of poetic time-shifting...”
Deborah Young,
The Hollywood Reporter