A f ilm by Marco Berger S t a r r i n g GUILLERMO PFENING LAUTORO DELGADO AILIN SALAS www.dos-elefantes.com 2 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. 3 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. 4 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 5 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 6 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 7 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 8 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”. 9 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. 10 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. 11 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
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